


Fighting the Shadows

by incognitostarkbaratheon



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Edric is not Gendry's brother, F/M, He is just adopted, Jon Snow is Not a Targaryen, Minor Character Death, Minor Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen, Minor Theon Greyjoy/Sansa Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2020-10-21 17:11:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20697092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incognitostarkbaratheon/pseuds/incognitostarkbaratheon
Summary: After a traumatic experience, Arya is unable to connect with new people until an innocent gift makes her question her own isolation and consider a new path. But will the shadows stay away?A story where Arya and Sansa are good sisters and the Stark siblings have healthy relationships.





	1. The Frame

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm not new at reading fics but I'm new at writing them. My first one is simple but I hope you enjoy it.

Arya finished her breakfast leaning against the kitchen door while watching Nymeria chase a butterfly in the backyard. It wasn’t a big space but it was enough for Nymeria to entertain herself and do her business when Arya was busy and couldn’t take her to the park.

After washing her bowl, Arya got ready for the day. The hot months were approaching, but today the morning was fresh and she wanted to take advantage of the nice weather while she could still do it. Arya chose a plain dark grey t-shirt, jeans, sneakers and a black jumper. After looking at the mirror one last time, she grabbed Nymeria’s leash and called her from the kitchen. The butterfly was long gone so Nymeria was glad when she heard her human’s voice calling.

Once Nymeria was ready Arya closed the kitchen’s door, double checked the lock and went from window to window checking those locks as well until she felt satisfied. Then she approached the main door to prepare the alarm.

Arya took the bag with Jon’s gift and Nymeria’s leash, walked out of the house, locked with her keys and stepped back waiting to hear the familiar ‘Beep’ of the alarm activating inside. When it did, she nodded and walked away with Nymeria at her side and the cool breeze on her face.

Arya had made a watercolour painting of Winterfell for Jon’s nameday and was planning on framing it with something simple out of a store. But then she had to go to the office of a client, Mr Selmy, and saw a gorgeous frame, a mixture of carved wood and metal shaped like ivy blending and complementing each other in a beautiful way. She immediately fell in love with the piece and asked about it. Mr Selmy directed Arya to Seaworth’s Shop and she was on her way right now.

\-----

Gendry enjoyed walking to work in the mornings. The streets were still not crowded and the air felt fresh on his face, which he always found relaxing before starting his day at the shop. He was usually in the back workshop; he loved working with his hands and later see the pieces he could create out of simple materials like metal, wood and more recently, glass.

However, today was different. Davos, his boss, was supervising a delivery outside the city and it was Gendry’s turn to stay in the shop. The first time he had to do it he thought he was going to hate it, but to his surprise he didn’t. Gendry wasn’t extremely social but most of the people coming to the shop were nice and he could still do some of the tasks that didn’t involve extreme heat. An additional thing he wasn’t expecting to like was seeing the various expressions on the faces while looking around the shop.

Arriving after a pleasant walk, Gendry started the daily routine, getting everything ready for the clients. A few minutes later Edric arrived, he also worked in the workshop and was teaching Gendry how to make the very popular and colourful blown glass pieces. Edric could be a bit too enthusiastic sometimes when it came to not work related things, but they got along well enough and Gendry was glad to work with someone he didn’t need to worry about to get things done when he was in the shop, which was more and more often lately.

About a year ago, not long after hiring Edric, Davos told Gendry he did so because he was already planning his retirement. It was still going to take a while but since his own son had chosen a different profession, he wanted to train Gendry to take care of the shop with Davos as a silent partner and Gendry had been learning to do that.

When Davos told him, Gendry was shocked to say the least. It took him several days to even get used to the idea, but after a year of dealing with clients, suppliers, numbers, inventories and other stuff, Gendry was confident he would be ready by the time Davos decided to go. He didn’t want Davos to go though, he loved the old man as if he had been his own father and would miss seeing him every day.

Gendry looked around, it was still early and he guessed he still had a few minutes to get some work done in the back. Half an hour later he heard the bell and the front door opening, ‘time to start,’ he thought. Gendry walked through the door separating the two areas and saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen examining one of his chests.

\-----

Arya opened Seaworth’s door and the sound of a bell, still typical of some businesses, greeted her. The interior was not what she expected; it was old looking but well illuminated and elegant in a way. Some of the objects displayed around her looked very expensive so she made sure Nymeria was close to her. Arya saw a smaller version of Mr Selmy’s frame but that was far from being the only interesting thing. The place was full of handmade decorative objects, mostly wood and metal but Arya saw blown glass pieces as well. There were also more functional things; chests, cabinets and even chairs and a small table on the back.

Arya was busy admiring the intricate details of a chest when she heard the voice coming from an opened door behind the counter, “we can make those in different sizes.”

She stood up to see a man stepping closer to the counter and Arya had to hold her breath for a second. Younger than she expected in a shop like this one, tall, with thick black hair, gorgeous blue eyes and fabulous arms.

It took Arya a moment to make her brain work again, “I… I was actually looking for one of those frames,” she said pointing to the one she saw when she arrived.

The man looked to the frame, “good choice, are you interested on a standard piece or a custom made?”

He walked towards her and Arya had to make an effort to stay where she was without doing anything stupid, like running out of the shop for example, but Nymeria was the one doing something unexpected. When the man approached, she raised her paws to put them on his waist and smiled at him. Arya was shocked, Nymeria wasn’t a rude wolf, she was usually very respectful but she wasn’t this friendly with strangers.

“Nymeria, no!” Arya exclaimed.

“Oh it’s fine, you are a cute girl, aren’t you?” He said to Nymeria with a rather beautiful smile while scratching behind her ears.

“Nymeria, leave the man alone, seriously.” The wolf lowered herself but remained next to the man.

“It’s fine, for real.” He said smiling at Arya this time, “and I’m Gendry Waters.” He finished offering his hand.

Arya shook his hand, “Arya Stark.” She looked at his eyes searching for signs of recognition. He didn’t show any but looking into those eyes made her feel something funny in her stomach. Luckily, he spoke and that distracted her.

“So, Miss Stark, would you be interested on a custom made piece? I can personalise the engraved details to a certain degree, it depends of the size.”

“You make them?” Arya was impressed but didn’t show it.

“Among many other things around here, yes.” Gendry said proudly.

“I don’t think it’s that big, I have it here.”

“Good, over here.” Gendry guided her to the counter where Arya took the painting out, Nymeria walked next to him and Arya couldn’t believe her eyes. “This is pretty good, did you make it?

“It is not really big, right?” Arya was an expert avoiding personal questions, but it felt weird doing it with this guy, a small part of her wanted to answer and she didn’t know why. If he noticed the evasion he didn’t argue so she let it pass.

“Let’s see.”

Gendry took measurements while Arya looked from his hands to his face. The guy was attractive, she had to recognise that, but she didn’t need that kind of distractions. Arya looked away and focused on the shelf next to her until Gendry called her attention again.

“Ready, what details do you want me to integrate?”

“Just the silhouettes of a couple of wolves, please.”

“Your boyfriend likes wolves too?” Gendry asked, writing the instruction on the receipt.

Arya could have avoid or lie about that, but she didn’t. “My brother actually, his nameday will be soon.”

Gendry kept writing for a few more seconds without changing his expression. “Well, a couple of wolves wouldn’t be too much trouble; I’ll have it in 10 days. Also, if you leave the painting with me I can secure it inside the frame and deliver it ready to give to your brother.”

Arya considered it, somehow she felt like she could trust this guy and to her own surprise she agreed. “Alright, but please be careful with it.”

“I’ll make sure it doesn’t get a single scratch.” Gendry wrote a note about the painting on the receipt, detached the copy and offered it to Arya.

“Don’t you want me to pay something in advance?” Arya replied taking the paper.

“Not right now, you trust me with the painting and I trust you with the payment,” and with a lower, more mischievous tone, “just don’t tell my boss.” He smiled again.

Arya couldn’t hold a smile. “Not telling your boss, then. I’ll see you in 10 days. Nymeria, let’s go.”

But Nymeria wanted to say goodbye as well, she raised her paws again to rest on Gendry so he could pet her and he seemed delighted to comply. “Goodbye pretty girl, I’ll see you too in a few days.” Arya called Nymeria again and this time she obeyed, they walked outside without saying more.

Once outside and in their way back home Arya questioned Nymeria. “What was all that about girl? You are never friendly with strangers and you were all over this guy.”

Nymeria only glanced at Arya and kept walking, she didn’t understand why her human was complaining. The male human had good energy.

After a few minutes Arya spoke again. “How did I leave my painting with a complete stranger? What’s wrong with me?” Arya was having a hard time processing that reckless act, “what’s so special about this Gendry guy anyway?”

She looked at Nymeria, not quite sure if she asked that last part to the wolf or to herself. “Don’t you dare liking this guy Arya Stark,” she whispered to herself, “you don’t need that… And besides, you don’t even know him, he could be a lunatic.” Arya forced herself to put those bright blue eyes and the heart worming smile on the back of her head and kept walking in silence.

\-----

Gendry stared at the closed door for a whole minute; he couldn’t believe how gorgeous this girl was. With silky dark hair and hypnotising grey eyes, Gendry was surprised he had been able to speak complete sentences to her to be honest. In fact, when she finally smiled, he almost lost his cool. If not for the huge dog getting his attention he would have done something incredibly stupid, he was sure of it.

Also, Nymeria was so well behaved and friendly. Yet Arya, ‘Miss Stark’ he corrected himself, seemed surprised about it, and that wasn’t the only thing he noticed. Miss Stark avoided answering a question about the painting and he wasn’t sure she said the truth when he made his subtle as a punch in the face enquiry about a boyfriend. He hoped she did. That didn’t mean she didn’t have a boyfriend of course, which he found difficult to believe, but at least he was making this piece for her brother and not for a boyfriend because…

“Stop!” Gendry whispered closing his eyes. “This girl probably doesn’t even remember your name by now and you are worrying about a boyfriend.”

Gendry knew he shouldn’t be thinking those things about a client, but he was so intrigued. Gendry wanted to know more about her, what she did for a living, her hobbies, her favourite food, so many things. He wanted to get lost in those grey eyes so maybe; just maybe, he would ignore professionalism and ask her out next time.


	2. Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya is still convinced she doesn't need any of this, but her will is starting to break and she doesn't know how to deal with it.

The morning Arya was supposed to go for the frame, she caught herself checking if she looked good wearing her dark green top and moved so quickly from the mirror that she hit her toe with the wardrobe door.

“Ahhh!” Arya sat on the bed and moved her toe for a few seconds to calm the pain. She had been trying to repress certain set of blue eyes for the last 10 days and kept trying to convince herself she wasn’t nervous, but she was.

“Come on Arya, get a grip. You just have to go there, pick up the frame and come back. Everything will go back to normal and you’ll be able to forget about Gendry.”

Of course he was Gendry now, at some point during the last week he had gone from ‘this guy’ to ‘Gendry’ and Arya hated herself for letting that happen. She took a deep breath and said loud and clear, “a guy is not worth the risk, no matter how handsome he is.”

After a second deep breath, Arya finished getting ready, followed the same security routine she did every time she left the house and after hearing the ‘Beep’ from the alarm, she walked towards Seaworth’s, doing her best to think about groceries.

\-----

Gendry was in the workshop today, but he was avoiding doing anything that would get him dirty or sweaty, at least until Arya came. Four times the front door opened and four times his heart stopped, but all of them were false alarms.

He was nearly done with his tasks with wood and feared he would have to start with the forge before Arya arrived, but then the front door opened again and this time Davos called, “Gendry, you have a client here to pick up a frame.”

Gendry’s heart jumped but he managed to sound calm when he spoke. “Coming!”

He cleaned his hands, took the frame already with the painting inside and looked at it one last time. He carved the wolves so it looked like they were guarding the castle. The painting also had a winter setting, with snow on the roofs and the ground, so he took the liberty to include a few snowflakes between the other carvings; he hoped Arya would like them. Gendry sighed after a few seconds and walked to the front.

Arya looked as beautiful as last time, today with a black denim jacket instead of a jumper and her hair up in a bun. Gendry realised he was staring so he said the first thing coming to his mind.

“Hi,” he sounded lower than he expected.

“Hello,” Arya answered with the same tone and then they went silent again.

Davos was an old man but he was not stupid, he picked up the hint and quickly made an excuse to go to the back, leaving Arya and Gendry alone. Once Davos was out of sight, Gendry spoke again.

“How are you?” He said, still not sure how to approach her.

“I’m fine, thanks. You?”

Arya didn’t sound like he was bothering her so he continued, “fine as well, yeah. What about Nymeria?”

“You remember her name.”

Of course Gendry remembered the dog’s name; he remembered every detail of their last conversation. “Sure, it is a famous name. You know, history books.”

“Yeah, that’s why I chose it.”

At the mention of her name, Nymeria went to sit right in front of Gendry and he knelt down to scratch behind her ears. Nymeria licked his cheek and Gendry laughed, but when he stood up Arya had that puzzled look on her face again.

“You look confused,” Gendry said hoping Arya didn’t take that as an intrusion.

“No, I mean. She is not usually this friendly, that’s all.”

“Oh, well I like her as well so the feeling is mutual.” He smiled but Arya didn’t return the gesture so he changed the topic. “Your frame is ready; would you like to see it?”

“Yes, please.”

Gendry placed the frame on the counter so Arya could see it and waited for her opinion. She examined it, touching the details with the tips of her fingers, first the wolves and then along the sides, where she found the snowflakes.

“Are these snowflakes?”

“Yeah, I hope you don’t mind. The painting has snow so I thought they would go well.”

He looked straight to her eyes, she didn’t look angry and that was good, but he still held his breath until she replied.

“Actually, they do. My brother will love it.”

Arya smiled and that was enough for Gendry. “Great, satisfied customer then?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Gendry put the frame inside its bag and received Arya's money, but when it was time for Arya to go, Gendry couldn’t take it. He had to ask, even if she laughed at him, he had to know.

“Look, I probably shouldn’t be doing this because you are a client but… I was wondering if you would like to go out with me.”

Arya looked surprised, for a moment he thought she might actually say yes, but then her expression changed to one resembling sadness and something else, something Gendry couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“I’m sorry, I can’t.”

Gendry thought he was ready for a rejection, but his heart fell anyway. “You do have a boyfriend, right?”

“No, I just don’t date. I’m sorry, for real.”

Then Arya took the bag and walked out, calling Nymeria from the opened door. The wolf hesitated, looking from the door to Gendry. He waved at her and muttered an almost silent ‘bye’. Arya called Nymeria again, sounding irritated. This time, the wolf turned around and walked out as well. The door closed and Gendry had to take a moment before going to the back again. It had been foolish of him to expect someone like her to be interested on a date, but it still crushed his heart to see her go. He didn’t think he would see Arya again.

Gendry went straight to the forge after that and spent the rest of the day there, focusing only on the tasks he had to complete.

\-----

Nymeria was confused, her human’s energy had changed in a second and now she was irradiating sadness, just like the male human. She tried to comfort her human the best she could for the rest of the day, but the feeling didn’t go away. Nymeria fell asleep feeling anxious.

\-----

Jon loved his present, frame included. He bragged about it with everyone present at his party and, to Arya’a annoyance, more than one person commented on how well her painting looked in combination with the frame. Even Sam, Jon’s best friend, asked if he could get the sellers information to buy one for his wife, Gilly. Arya assured him she would send him the address.

Arya felt like the whole thing had been a mistake. Jon would hang the painting, she was sure of it, which meant Arya would have a constant reminder of Gendry every time she went to Jon and Dany's house. After an hour, Arya excused herself telling she was tired and left. She wasn’t in the mood for parties.

\-----

A few days later, Arya convinced herself she absolutely needed to go to that new art supplies store to see what kind of new crafty stuff she could get for her work. The fact that Seaworth’s was just a couple of blocks away had anything to do with it. As she crossed the street Seaworth’s was in, Arya looked on its direction but she was too far to actually see anything inside.

“Nothing to see here, why would I be interested anyway?” She whispered to herself.

She walked without looking back until she arrived to the store. It wasn’t too big and they didn’t have anything particularly new, but they were kind enough to allow Nymeria inside so Arya bought a few nice pencils to sketch.

When they came out to the street again the sun was hitting hard and Arya dreaded the way back home, but in the next corner there was a coffee shop with a covered patio and a sign on the entrance that said ‘Dog friendly café!’ Arya looked at her wolf, “we can hide from the sun for a few minutes, would you like that?” Nymeria sniffed something inside and smiled at Arya, “that’s a yes then,” and walked inside.

Not two seconds after going in, Nymeria started dragging Arya along the side of the tables to the other corner of the patio. “Hey! What’s going on with y…?”

“Nymeria!”

Arya heard Gendry’s voice before even seeing his face and her heart stopped. She looked up to see him smiling from ear to ear while scratching the wolf’s head. Nymeria had both her paws on his leg and looked like she was enjoying every bit of attention. Arya stepped out of the trance when Gendry looked up and she saw the gorgeous blue eyes she had been dreaming about for the last weeks.

“Hey there,” said Gendry still smiling.

“Hi,” Arya answer trying to keep her voice stable, “what are you doing here?” She hoped that last didn’t sound rude but if it did, Gendry didn’t acknowledge it.

“I work two blocks from here, remember? It’s my lunch break. Would you like to sit down?” He finished signalling the chair in front of him.

Arya looked at the chair for a second but ended up shaking her head, “no, I don’t want to bother you. We will go sit somewhere else.”

“Well, it looks like the place is full,” Gendry said looking behind Arya, she looked back as well only to see two women sitting at the empty table she had seen when she arrived, “and Nymeria seems to like it in here.”

His finger was pointing down where Nymeria was already getting comfortable under the table. She didn’t look interested in moving.

Arya sighed, ‘you, sneaky wolf’ she thought and looked back to Gendry. His smile was friendly and kind and his eyes were devastating. She allowed herself to look into those blue magnets while considering what she was going to do. In the end the blue won and Arya sat down carefully, trying not to hit Nymeria with her feet.

“Thank you, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I don’t mind.” Gendry said the last part on a playful tone and Arya couldn’t repress a giggle. She looked down to regain control until he spoke again. “This will be the most cliché thing in the entire world but, do you come here often?” Gendry frowned, cringing for what he just said.

Arya tried very hard to contain a smile but failed. “No, I came to a store around here and this seemed like a good place to hide from the sun for a while.”

“Cute Arts & Crafts 4 U”

“What?” Arya said feeling startled.

“The bag, that’s what it says. They opened it not long ago I think.”

Arya completely forgot she was carrying a brown paper bag with a bright yellow, pink and pastel green logo and the name of the store. “Yeah, of course,” she tried to sound as natural as possible.

“Let me guess,” Gendry considered it for a few seconds, “brushes,” he finally said.

“Actually, it is pencils,” and to her own surprise, she took one out of the bag to show it to Gendry.

Gendry took the pencil being careful not to touch her and examined it, “these ones are good, are you a professional?”

Arya gulped at the direct personal question but managed to answer without too much hesitation. “My brother loved your frame; I think I got you one or two new customers.”

“Great! I’m glad he liked it.”

Arya made the change of topic as obvious as possible and apparently Gendry got the hint because after that they talked about his job, a couple of pieces he was working on and how he often came to this café to sketch new designs for the shop. “Keep it fresh and the clients will keep coming,” he said imitating the deep voice of his boss and Arya laughed openly, she didn’t even try to stop herself. His face was so expressive Arya felt like she could look at him for days at the time. And he was also funny, which she was not expecting, it was hard to make her laugh these days.

After a while his phone flashed with a message and he read whatever it said. “Shit! I’m late; I was supposed to go back 20 minutes ago.”

Gendry put the phone on his pocket and was about to close his notebook but stopped. For a moment he didn’t say anything but he finally spoke with a low but clear voice, “I know you said you don’t date but, we could just eat an actual lunch or have a drink, eat ice cream, whatever you want, it doesn’t have to be a date.”

Arya knew something like this could happen and already had an answer to give, but didn’t expect it to be so difficult to say, she had to make an effort to get the words out of her mouth. “Gendry for real, I can’t.”

The shine in his eyes seemed to faint a bit but he kept talking with a kind voice and that made Arya feel worse. “Look, I don’t know your reasons, I don’t need to if you don’t want to tell me, but I need you to know this,” he stopped for a second to think, then continued, “it is not my intention to harm you or disrespect you in any way. I’m genuinely interested in getting to know you, that’s all. I only want the chance to do that, just think about it.”

Gendry tore a piece of paper from his notebook, wrote something on it and left it in front of Arya. “This is my number. Call, text, you know where I work, go. Whatever you feel more comfortable with. And if you are for real not interested, then it was very nice meeting you.”

Then Gendry knelt to call Nymeria’s attention. “Be a good girl and take care of Arya, OK?” Nymeria licked his face while he played with her fur and he smiled, but his eyes were sad. After a moment he got on his feet, took his notebook and pencil and said “bye” before walking to the counter to pay and leave.

Arya didn’t move until she saw Gendry disappear behind the building on the corner across the street. She was so disoriented she couldn’t even describe how she felt. A part of her wanted to run as far as possible from this guy and never think about him again. The other part wanted to run after him and hug him, just to see his eyes shine again. She wanted to both dismiss his existence and cry because what he said got to her; both curse him and kiss him.

Arya closed her eyes and sighed to calm down; she only opened them when she heard Nymeria emitting a low groan. She looked down to see her wolf’s face with a weird expression, Arya could swear it was worry but she didn’t want to think about that, or anything else. She massaged Nymeria’s ear and turned to the almost empty glass of lemonade she barely remembered ordering or drinking. She needed to go home.

The waitress was cleaning the table behind her so Arya asked her for the bill. “It’s fine, the guy you were with paid for it.” The waitress winked and left to take an order in another table.

‘Fantastic, I reject him and he pays for my drink. That will make me feel better,’ Arya thought feeling even worse.

She finished the lemonade in one go, took some change out of her bag to leave a tip and the paper with Gendry’s number caught her eyes. It would be so easy to just fold it and leave it there; the waitress would throw it away once she cleaned the table. Arya took the paper, folded it, held it on her hand for what felt like a whole week and put it on her pocket. She left the café with Nymeria next to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this one guys. I'll fix it, I promise.


	3. A Little Push

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gendry finds out a bit more about Arya and she receives some needed encouragement.

A week after their encounter on the café, Arya still had an empty feeling on the stomach and was having trouble concentrating on her new project. She had been sitting with her eyes closed in front of an almost empty canvas, trying to decide what kind of red she wanted to include for almost 10 minutes.

When Sansa called, Arya answered the phone without thinking, like in automatic. “Yeah,” she said with apathy.

“Hello dear sister, I’m glad to know you’re back, did your trip go well? Yes Arya, thank you so much for asking, how are you?”

Sansa knew Arya wasn’t the ‘chatty in the phone’ type, but sometimes her lack of enthusiasm made Sansa tease her sister just to elicit a better response.

Arya listened to Sansa with a smirk and answered, “Hey sis, how was the massacre this time?”

“Quite satisfactory, actually. I’ll tell you about it when I see you.”

Sansa worked on a fancy human resources management company, her job was to go to other companies to implement and restructure stuff. What stuff Arya didn’t quite understand, but by the time Sansa was done, the company’s structure was squeaky clean, the always problematic lazy employees and corrupt executives were out, or massacred in Arya’s words, and Sansa got a bunch of money for it.

She sometimes had to travel, and this time she had been somewhere around The Neck working on a tech company for the last month or so and Arya was already waiting for her call. They usually had either lunch or dinner together at least once a month and now Sansa was back, Arya would have to see her sooner or later.

Arya considered saying she had a deadline on a project coming up to delay the meeting, it wouldn’t have been suspicious because deadlines were a thing on Arya’s work, but she decided not to do it. Maybe listening to Sansa’s stories about massacres will cheer her up a little bit as it often did. They agreed to meet the following Wednesday.

\-----

Gendry felt optimistic after his last encounter with Arya, but as the days passed without any word from her, his optimism started fading. He had hoped what he said at the end of their chat had some impact on Arya but it looked more and more like she was indeed not interested and Gendry would have to forget about her, which was not going to be easy.

It made no sense to feel like that for someone he only met three times, but he craved Arya’s eyes meeting his, the way she looked down when she smiled, her hand playing with one of her pencils while she talked, he even missed Nymeria for fuck’s sake.

“Gendry, wake up!” Davos was on the entrance of the workshop with a receipt. “The client is on the front, is this ready?”

Gendry looked down and realised he had been sanding the same piece of wood for several minutes. He left what he was doing to take the receipt and read it. “It is ready.” He walked to the storage room and brought back a wooden box with flowers carved on top. “The padlock and key are inside,” he said to Davos.

Davos looked like he wanted to say something but just muttered a “thank you” and turned around to return with the client. Gendry sighed with relief.

At the end of the day, when Gendry was locking the main door of the shop, Davos asked the question he was dreading. “So tell me, where was your head earlier? Did you fight with your girl?”

Gendry smirked and shook his head, “she is not my girl, and we didn’t fight. She was just not interested.”

“I’m sorry. You liked her, right? Davos changed his tone a bit to sound more serious.

“Yeah, but it’s on me, she did tell me she wasn’t dating.”

Davos nodded, “It is her loss then.” Gendry forced a smile and Davos noticed, but he let It pass, “go home, get some rest.”

Davos turned around to leave and Gendry stood there looking at the street for one more minute. He had intentionally avoided the café during those days, he didn’t want to be there remembering his last visit. He would have to go back at some point; it was one of his favourite spots in the neighbourhood, but not yet.

\-----

When Gendry arrived home half an hour later, he just wanted to disconnect from the real world. He prepared, or more precisely microwaved some leftovers from the previous day and sat to eat in front of the TV. The first thing on was a romantic comedy and Gendry snorted loudly, he switched channels until he found one of those movies with aliens trying to invade the planet.

‘Perfect,’ he thought, ‘Something entertaining that doesn’t require my full attention.’

Gendry finished eating halfway through the movie and soon found himself browsing on his phone. He had been thinking that, if Arya made some kind of art for a living, she would be online. So despite having his heart broken already, or maybe because of that, he wrote ‘Arya Stark’ on the search box and pressed the icon to see the results.

He scrolled through the first links, all were notes about her work. “So you are an artist,” he said to himself.

Then he clicked on the link that said was her official website, the ‘Home’ page had a brief overview of Arya’s work and a drop down menu showing a few options available. Graphic design was still her main thing, but her art was gaining traction. Every year she had an exhibition in one of those trendy galleries downtown and she was well known and respected within the local artistic community.

Gendry had to admit he didn’t know a lot about art but he liked most of what he saw on the site’s gallery. The mixing of colours and wavy lines of some of her abstract pieces somehow matched the patterns he achieved with the glass. Also, like him, Arya worked with different materials and not everything was similar; some were portraits of people, animals or landscapes made with normal paint, other were digital fantasy pieces and even a few very detailed snapshots of the city made with what looked like colour pencils and crayons, those were his favourites.

Then he clicked on the ‘About’ page where he found a short biography and finally, pictures. There were exactly 3 pictures of Arya, a very professional portrait with her hair in waves and more makeup than when he saw her. The second was of her alone, looking gorgeous on a navy blue dress next to one of her paintings, a single red rose in the middle of a vacant lot. In the last one Arya was wearing the same dress, posing with three other people. The caption said they were Syrio Forel, mentor and owner of the gallery; Brienne of Tarth, her agent and associate Podrick Payne during her last exhibition.

She was smiling on the three pictures and he didn’t think she was faking it but somehow, the smiles didn’t seem as bright as the ones he received when he was being a clown to make her laugh. Or maybe he was just imagining it to make himself feel better.

The last tab was the ‘Contact’ page. The address, phone number and e-mail of her agent, the blond woman next to her on the picture. Gendry looked at the information; of course he was never going to be able to contact Arya without someone else filtering his message, it had been naive of him to even hope for something different.

After that he returned to the search results and ventured on the ‘Images’ tab. Most images were of Arya’s work and only a few of her. He found a few more of different events and to his surprise, four pictures where Gendry barely recognised her. Arya had pink hair on 3 and lilac on 1, her clothes had vibrant colours and patterns, unlike what he had seen her wearing, and the smile was the same he had been seeing in his dreams for weeks, she looked happy.

“These have to be old,” Gendry said with disbelief.

But except for Arya’s expression, she didn’t look much younger. Arya wasn’t a teenager on those pictures; they couldn’t be more than 2 or 3 years old. The difference on her was evident even for him; it was as if she didn’t want to call too much attention now, which was ironic taking in consideration the huge dog she owned.

“What happened to you?” Gendry asked to the images on the phone.

Gendry looked at the images one last time before closing the browser; he was already regretting searching for Arya, he felt even emptier now. When he turned to the TV, the movie was different and he didn’t care. Gendry sat on the sofa staring at the screen without really paying attention until it was time to go to bed. A happier Arya with pink hair was the last image on his mind before falling asleep.

\-----

“Arya!” exclaimed Sansa.

“What?” Arya said turning her attention back to her sister; she didn’t notice she had been looking blankly through the restaurant window.

“Did you even listen to me? I invited Jon and Daenerys for dinner since I wasn’t here for his actual nameday party and I asked if you want to come as well.”

“Sure, when?”

Sansa groaned but repeated herself without further complaining to Arya’s relief. “Saturday, my house. I’m even getting a couple of those doggy mini cakes so Nymeria and Ghost can eat a treat too.”

“Great, Nymeria will love that, thank you. Should I bring something?”

“Your presence, preferably along with your attention.” Arya managed a fainted smile but didn’t say anything so Sansa continued, “you are particularly distracted today, what are you daydreaming about?”

“Nothing, work, I was considering an idea for a new project.” Arya realised how lame that answer was the moment she said it but it was too late, Sansa’s eyes were already evaluating her face.

“Arya, is there something wrong? Is it…”

“No,” Arya said before Sansa could finish, “everything is fine, for real; I guess I’m just tired.” Lame again. ‘Damn!’ Arya thought.

Sansa paid even more attention, “no, you are irritable when you are tired, right know you are… distracted, as if you are thinking about something else.” Arya moved uncomfortably in her chair, staring at the glass of juice in front of her while waiting for Sansa to finish her deduction. “Or someone else… you met someone.”

“No, I didn’t’.”

“Yes, you did. Start talking.”

Arya knew Sansa wasn’t going to let it go anymore so she took a moment to think her words with more care, “it’s nothing really. He was just nice, that’s all.” She sucked at talking about those things.

Sansa nodded, “is he a fan?”

“No, he doesn’t know who I am.”

“How did you meet then?”

“I wanted a nice frame for the painting I made for Jon and a client recommended the shop he works at, he made it for me. So technically I went to him.”

Sansa smiled, she looked pleased, “and does mister nice frame maker has a name?” Arya hesitated at that. “Oh, come on! I’m not going after him because he looked at my little sister, that’s Jon’s job.”

“Hahahaha” Arya exclaimed in her best sarcastic tone, “Gendry… Waters.”

“So you are dating him now.”

“I wouldn’t say that, no.”

“No? Then what? Tell me!”

Arya thought it would be difficult to talk about Gendry but as the words came out of her mouth, she felt more relaxed and by the end, she was relieved. Arya didn’t know how much she needed to actually tell someone about the whole thing.

“Tell me you still have that number.”

“I still have it.”

“Well, call him.”

“I don’t know, what if he is not as good as he seems?”

“Look, he sounds like a good guy to me, and if Nymeria likes him as much as you say she does, that’s a good sign. Give him the chance he is asking for, it’s the only way to know.” Arya just sighed at this so Sansa decided to go all the way. “Arya, how long it’s been? Two years?”

“Yeah.”

Sansa nodded before continue. “Listen, what happened was horrible and you handled it like a champion. I will admire for the rest of my life that you decided to stay here and not accept Robb’s offering of going back with him to Winterfell. But you can’t isolate yourself forever, you used to make friends with everyone and now you hardly speak with anyone that’s not your agent, a client or a family member. You obviously like this guy; we wouldn’t be having this conversation otherwise. Give him a chance, give yourself a chance.”

Arya turned her sight to the window again, meditating. She did like Gendry, she had to accept it and although she hated to admit it, Sansa was right; she couldn’t just spend the rest of her life not getting close to anyone she didn’t know already.

She finally turned to face her sister and nodded, “I’ll call him.”

“Good,” Sansa said with a satisfied smile.

\-----

Arya had pinned Gendry’s number on her ‘Notes and reminders’ board when she first got it and two days after her conversation with Sansa, the number was still there. Arya had been inventing excuses to call later but today, she felt decided. After finishing her work for the day, Arya took the number and her phone to the table, sat down and started dialling. She managed to enter the entire number, but when the time to press ‘Call’ came, she cancelled.

Then Nymeria approached with a smile and Arya leaned to scratch her head. “Hey girl, guess what I’m doing, I’m calling your friend Gendry.” Nymeria’s smile seemed to brighten when she heard Gendry’s name, like trying to encourage Arya to do it. “You really like him, right,” Nymeria’s reaction was to put a paw on Arya’s leg. “Alright, maybe calling is what’s making me so nervous, but he also said I could text him, so… maybe… a message would be more appropriate. What do you think?” Head on Arya’s leg was the wolf’s answer. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Arya entered the number again, considered it for a few seconds and wrote only four words. She read them twice and added her name at the end. Once the text was ready she looked at Nymeria and realised the wolf had raised her head and was moving her gaze between her and the phone. Arya took it as a definitive sign and pressed ‘Send’.

The phone felt like hot carbon on Arya’s hand immediately after sending the message, she left it on the table and almost ran to her studio to double check if the brushes were clean despite knowing perfectly well she never forgot to clean them.

Two minutes later Arya heard her phone receiving a text and couldn’t repress a smile.


	4. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A text message that changes things and a family dinner.
> 
> Arya finally opening up and taking a crucial decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small warning, there's a gory line on this chapter. It is only a detail and I don't mention it again, but I say it because gross.

Gendry was about to leave for the day. He felt blissfully tired, which meant he was going to be able to fall asleep faster, a welcomed thing these days. He was drying his hands in the bathroom when his phone rang and Gendry thought it was going to be Hot Pie complaining again about how expensive baking appliances were, turns out they were indeed expensive.

Not really thinking about it, Gendry took his phone from one of the tables expecting to see Hot Pie’s number but instead, the screen displayed an ‘Unknown number’ title. ‘Spam messages again,’ he thought and opened it ready to put the number on the phone’s black list.

Then he saw the message. Not even a long one, just a few words, but those words made him feel his heart and stomach switching places and back again. _‘Lunch would be nice. Arya.’_ He read it four, five times before realising he had to answer it, as soon as possible. He took a deep breath, thinking about what he was going to say and started writing.

_‘Lunch is perfect.’_  
_‘When?’_  
_‘Is tomorrow OK?’_

Gendry waited anxious until he saw the wavy dots indicating someone writing on the other end.

_‘Tomorrow I’m busy, family thing.’_

A sting of disappointment on his stomach, then the dots again.

_‘But I’m free on Sunday.’_

‘That’s even better,’ Gendry thought. He didn’t work that day, he could stay with Arya for as long as she allowed him to.

_‘Sunday sounds fine.’_  
_‘Where?’_  
_‘I can go to pick you up if you want.’_

This time the dots took a few more seconds to appear. Gendry kept looking at the screen until he saw them again.

_‘Meet me in the café of the other day at noon, Nymeria seemed to like it.’_

Gendry smiled like a fool at that. Edric, who at the moment was walking to the door, looked at him surprised of how happy he was after so many days of looking miserable. He left without saying a word.

_‘Sunday at noon.’_

He was going to add ‘It’s a date,’ but remembered her words so instead he wrote something less specific.

_‘I’ll see you there.’_

The dots appeared one last time.

_‘OK.’_

Gendry read the conversation a couple of times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. He had a date with Arya, or a not date, whatever. He would have to wait until Sunday but he was going to see her. Gendry couldn’t hide the smile in front of a suspicious Davos and was still smiling when he arrived home.

\-----

Arya went early to Sansa’s house to help her and soon enough, Sansa was asking questions. “So, when are you seeing Gendry? You did call him, right?”

“Not of your business.” Sansa looked at her raising an eyebrow; Arya rolled her eyes, “tomorrow.”

“I’ll need details.”

“No! Why?”

“Because I care about you, you little brat,” Sansa said while slapping Arya on the back of the head.

“Hey!” Arya moved fast and hit Sansa’s hand before she could take it away.

“Auch!” Sansa rubbed her hand, “I’m just a concerned sister, that’s all.”

“You are a nosy sister, that’s what you are!” Arya said, trying to sound more annoyed than she really was. Her mood had significantly improved since she texted Gendry and couldn’t quite hide it.

Sansa was going to answer something but the doorbell sound distracted her and instead, just asked Arya to take care of it while she rushed back to the kitchen to keep getting everything ready.

Arya opened the door to see two shaky bags, one of them already breaking on the bottom. “Hi Theon, can I help you?”

Theon’s face peeked from behind the bags. “Oh, hi Arya. No, yes, take this before it falls,” Arya took the bag with bread on Theon’s left arm. “How are you? It’s good to see you,” he managed to say as he stepped inside while still fighting with the other bag, the bag was winning.

“I’m fine and you?”

“Fantastic, yeah… shit!” Theon exclaimed, almost dropping a bag of crackers.

Then they heard Sansa’s voice coming from the kitchen, “Theon? Did you get the wine?”

“I got the wine!” And he hurried to the kitchen before the bag fell apart.

Arya shook her head at Theon’s clumsiness and closed the door to go after him with the bread. Half an hour later Jon, Daenerys and Ghost arrived and their little gathering started.

The evening went as well as Arya expected, she enjoyed being with her sibling even if they were annoyingly overprotective sometimes and tonight they were having a fun time. During dinner, she caught herself looking at Daenerys almost cry of laughter at a stupid joke Theon was telling and wondered if Gendry could be sharing those jokes with them at some point, she secretly hoped so.

\-----

Gendry sat at his favourite table at 11:43, he opened his notepad to sketch while Arya arrived but after a few attempts and three pages of just random lines and circles he gave up and closed it again. He was more nervous than he cared to admit and the waiting was not helping.

“Why did I arrive so early?” Gendry whispered to himself. He looked to the clock on his phone, 11:58. “Damn it.”

Gendry didn’t know which way Arya would come from so he discretely scanned the streets visible to him and the entrance of the café while sipping his coffee. After a few minutes he looked at his phone again, 12:04. His nervousness was shifting into anxiety, what if she didn’t come? What if he spent the next hour waiting for Arya and she was never going to come?

“Come on Gendry, keep it together. Don’t be ridiculous.” He whispered trying to calm down.

At 12:07 the two of them, human and dog, appeared on the corner and Gendry was able to compose himself while the lights changed and they were able to cross the street. A few seconds later they entered the café and Nymeria made sure Arya found her way to Gendry as quickly as possible. She was wearing the same black denim jacket than last time but with a burnt red top underneath, black trousers and her hair down. ‘Gorgeous,’ he thought.

“Hi, sorry I’m late. I had to run a couple of errands before coming, I hope I didn’t make you wait for long,” said Arya while taking off Nymeria’s leash so she could sit comfortably. As soon as the wolf felt free, she approached Gendry to say ‘Hi’.

“Not at all, I arrived just a few minutes go,” Gendry said with a smile.

Arya sat down but didn’t say anything else so Gendry started, “how are you?”

“Fine,” Arya said nodding, she looked nervous as well. “You?”

“Quite well actually.” Gendry paused but Arya only smiled a bit. “Thank you for texting, and for coming.”

“Well, thank you for not ignoring me after taking so long to text you.”

“No way, I wouldn’t ignore you.” Arya smiled again, a bigger smile this time. “So, what are you up to these days? You look like a busy person.”

“Working.”

That was all her answer, so Gendry tried something else. “You said your brother liked the frame, I don’t know his personal taste; I hope I didn’t overdo it with the carvings.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Arya stopped again. Gendry didn’t know what to think of her expression, she looked like she was having a mental argument and he wasn’t sure of what he should do. Then she talked again and his heart froze.

“I can’t do this.”

“No, please. We don’t have to talk about your brother, or anything you don’t want to, just don’t leave.”

Arya looked at him confused, like thinking about what he said. “No, what I mean is… I can’t sit here avoiding all your questions and pretending it’s fine, it’s not.”

She looked down to Nymeria, sleeping peacefully between them. She was taking a decision and Gendry didn’t want to do anything to affect that in a negative way so he just stayed still until Arya spoke again.

“I need to tell you something.” Now she looked a bit scared.

“Anything,” Gendry replied with a soft voice.

The waitress of course chose that moment to approach the table. Arya was distracted but did order food so Gendry assumed she was, in fact, not going to run away. He didn’t know if he could eat after whatever Arya had to say but he ordered something anyway. The waitress wrote for the longest seconds and finally left. Arya waited until the waitress couldn’t hear what they were saying to start talking.

“I’m a graphic designer and I make art as well. I moved here a little over 5 years ago. I knew I would have better chances of achieving something here than back at home. Jon, my brother and my sister, Sansa, were already here so it was easier to start.”

Gendry nodded, encouraging her.

“After about a year, I got a project to design promotional stuff for an art gallery. I was talking with the owner about shades of orange, I still remember that, and we didn’t seem to be in the same page so I showed him a picture of one of my paintings on my phone, he was immediately interested on the painting.”

Arya paused for a moment to collect her thoughts and continued.

“At first I thought it was too good to be truth but it was real, Syrio was always looking for new artists, he helped me to improve my techniques and started promoting me. He sold one of my paintings, then another one and before I knew it I was already preparing an exhibition. The first one was small, I shared it with other two artists, but after that things got for real hectic.

Gendry was silent, trying to absorb the story.

“Between the graphic design to pay the bills and the paintings, I didn’t have too much of a social life apart from my family, not that I knew a lot of people here to begin with. So months later, when I received an email on my website from someone telling me how much he liked my work, I made the terrible mistake of answering him.”

Arya stopped for a moment and shook her head, she obviously regretted that decision.

“We started writing to each other and I really thought he could be a friend, the first real one since I moved. He showed interest in the next exhibition so I invited him. I’m always busy on those days but I talked to him for a few minutes and he seemed normal. He was wearing a suit, he said coherent things, he was polite and respectful. He did nothing to make me suspect anything.”

Gendry was starting to understand where this was going and he didn’t like it, but he managed to maintain a serene expression.

“He asked me out after that and I refused. I told him I was just too busy to date someone, which was kind of true. But the real reason was that, I wasn’t interested on him that way, at all. Safe to say he didn’t take it well. First he insisted, then begged, demanded, until he turned aggressive. By then I wasn’t even answering of course, I blocked the email address. He started writing from a different account and when I blocked that one as well, the first gift arrived.”

“First gift?” Gendry asked confused.

“He sent two, nasty stuff. A teddy bear covered in blood that looked and smelled real and a heart, a small one, probably from a cat or a rabbit.”

“Fuck.” Gendry took a very deep breath to remain calm while rubbing his face with his hands, it was not easy. “Then what happened?”

“I had already filed a report for harassment but they didn’t do anything, I guess because I wasn’t bleeding. After the teddy bear I tried again, only this time my brother helped. He works on private security and often collaborates with the police department to cover big events, so he convinced one of the main detectives to take my case.”

“OK” Gendry was trying hard to keep his voice relaxed, but it was getting difficult to do it.

“They tried first with the computer but the guy had one of those softwares to generate fake IPs, so when the second gift arrived, Detective Clegane was ready. He detained the messenger and managed to track this guy via the delivery service he used to send the boxes. Apparently they asked his information for their files and he gave his real name, Elmar Frey.”

“Good thing he did.”

“Yeah, his house was easy to find after that. I heard an officer say that he had a wall covered with pictures of me. They believed he had been following me for months.”

“So they got him then.”

“He wasn’t there. He didn’t appear until the next day, when he broke a window in my flat and attacked me.”

“What?” Gendry realised his calmed voice had vanished, he just sounded angry now. He had to make a huge effort to stop himself and let Arya continue.

“I fought, I hit him a couple of times, once in the head, but he was stronger than I thought. He managed to cut me before Detective Clegane kicked the door open.”

Then Arya moved the left side of her jacket and lowered her top enough to let Gendry see the area between her armpit and collarbone. A small but clear scar marked Arya’s skin and Gendry felt his whole body tremble. Both his fists were under the table trying to channel the rage; the only thing stopping him was the vulnerable look in Arya’s eyes.

“The police were stationed outside but the guy sneaked into the back alley, Detective Clegane heard the alarm and ran inside. The alarm Jon installed when I first moved in, the alarm I was always complaining about because I thought was so unnecessary and so overprotective of Jon to make me have it. That alarm saved my life.”

Gendry took a moment to recover his voice. “What happened to him?”

“He is gone in a way. His family has money; they hired lawyers and a doctor to convince the judge he was ill. They sent him to that mental hospital in Kingswood, he is still there.”

Gendry felt his rage rising again. “A mental hospital? He is crazy, that’s right, but he belongs to prison, not a hospital.”

“I know, both my brother and Detective Clegane were furious. I was as well at the time, but I was more relieved than anything else when they took him away.”

Gendry took another deep breath but didn’t say anything else, he just nodded.

“Anyway, my older brother came all the way from home to take me back with him but I refused. After some arguing he agreed as long as some changes were made. I moved into the house I live on now, after Jon personally supervised the installation of the appropriate alarm of course. My sister helped me to get an agent to serve as a bridge between me and clients or other people and that’s also when I got Nymeria to keep me company.”

Gendry didn’t know what to say, he was anticipating something bad, but not this bad. Before he could find his voice again, Arya had something else to say.

“Everything has been fine since then, but the damage was already done. I’m alright with clients and work acquaintances, but I haven’t been able to get close to anyone in a personal level in two years, not even a friendship. I don’t even know if I can so… I will give you a free way out now. You don’t need to deal with all of this; if you decide to back off, I won’t blame you.”

Then Gendry found his voice and he knew exactly what to say. “No.” Arya looked a bit surprised and that triggered him. “I can’t even begin to imagine how horrible that must have been for you. I wish it never happened, but I’m not backing off because it did. I meant what I said, I want to know you better, the good bits and the bad bits and if I have to deal with that, then so be it.”

Arya looked like she was holding back tears, Gendry wanted to get close and hug her but at the same time he didn’t want to invade her space. Arya closed her eyes and Gendry waited, he knew she needed the time. When she opened them, her eyes were clear again.

“You are aware you would have to be patient with me, right?”

Gendry released the breath he didn’t notice he was holding. “I can handle patient.”

He smiled for the first time since Arya started talking and she returned a little smile. That made him feel better immediately. Then he remembered he searched for her online. That could risk her willingness to spend time with him but he felt like he had to tell her to start with the right foot.

“I have something to say as well.”

“What?” Arya seemed cautious again.

“Nothing bad, but after what you told me I think you should know that I looked for you online. It was only one time, I saw your website and then some old pictures of you with pink hair but that is all, I swear. If I had known what happened before, I wouldn’t have dared to even type your name on the browser.”

Gendry finished and waited for Arya’s reaction. She didn’t look angry but he couldn’t read the expression, or rather lack of expression on her face. For the second time that day, he feared Arya would leave. After a few moments she replied.

“Well, my website is public and I personally approved everything there so you didn’t see anything private. The pictures are from around that time, yes. Once online, you can never truly get rid of anything.”

“I’m sorry.”

Arya shook her head. “You didn’t know, and you didn’t invade my privacy so don’t worry. Actually, you get points for telling me right away. As you can imagine, I don’t appreciate people hiding things.”

“Thank you.” Gendry was so relieved.

“Thank you for not treating me with pity.”

“You don’t need my pity.” Gendry could see Arya relaxing again so he decided to change to a lighter topic, “but what about a nice meal?” He pointed to the food that had been on the table for the last 20 minutes. “Do you think that’s a good start?”

Arya looked down, she seemed a bit surprised to see the food was already there and that made her laugh a little bit.

“A meal sounds like a fantastic start,” Arya said still smiling.

The rest of the afternoon was everything Gendry was hoping for. He was being careful not to ask too personal questions but what he asked, Arya answered with no hesitation or avoidance. Since Gendry had already seen her work and Arya didn’t have to describe every single detail, they talked about different pieces and her inspiration to make them, which ones were their respective favourites and how she fell in love with art.

Gendry learned some things about her family as well. Jon had been adopted as a baby when his mum died and that’s why he had a different last name. Also he had Ghost, Nymeria’s actual brother, only Ghost was completely white. Arya’s sister and Theon, her fiancé, were planning their wedding for the following year and Arya was looking forward to seeing her brothers visiting from home for the occasion.

After a few hours, Nymeria was already restless so they left the café and Gendry took them to a small park on the area, which Arya didn’t know existed, where they played with Nymeria for a while. Somehow it was already dinner time and this time it was Arya’s turn to take Gendry to a cosy restaurant where they ate burgers and talked some more. At around 7:00, Arya announced she should probably go home. Gendry didn’t want the day to end, but he knew arguing wasn’t his best option.

“I have to feed Nymeria, but I had a really good time.”

“Me too, it was amazing.” Gendry thought for a second and decided to ask. “Can I walk you home? It is getting dark.”

Arya considered it but ended up shaking her head. “No, not yet. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I totally get it.” And he did, Gendry had no problem waiting for Arya to trust him as long as he could still see her. “But can I call you? Tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

Gendry was mentally screaming with triumph but he only said one word. “Great!”

“Nymeria, say bye to Gendry, we are leaving.”

Gendry knelt to scratch Nymeria’s head. When he stood up and looked at Arya, the puzzled look he saw in her eyes before was no longer there, instead she looked pleased. Gendry considered it a good sign.

“Good bye then.” Arya said.

“Bye.”

Gendry looked at Arya and Nymeria walking away from him and disappear around the next corner still feeling astonished at how well that had gone. The first part had been horrible to hear, he felt angry just thinking about it, he knew it would take him some time to fully assimilate it. Gendry also knew he would have to be careful with Arya to not make her feel uncomfortable in any way. But Gendry didn’t care; he was more than willing to work to earn Arya’s affection.

\-----

Arya thought about the day while walking home. Gendry was the first guy, not just in the last two years but in general, that made her feel like she could fully be herself without worrying or hiding. Even more important, he made her feel safe. She then felt the familiar apprehension arising and trying to take over, but for the first time in a long while she fought it. Arya realised she wasn’t willing to let it win anymore. Two years had been enough, it was time to fight her way back to the person she used to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With that conversation out of the way, things will speed up a bit. I have no intention of writing another four chapters of Arya wondering if she wants Gendry to kiss her or not so you will not have to wait for the fluff, and maybe a bit more.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


	5. Civil War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A movie night with a happy ending and new friends.
> 
> Arya starts to see Gendry in a different way and makes herself interesting questions.

They started seeing each other regularly after that chat. However, the first few times were tricky for the both of them. Arya was obviously still finding her ground around Gendry so he kept his distance but made sure to be there for her and gave her all the support and companionship he could provide. Sometimes it was difficult not to hold her and kiss her but he knew it was the right approach.

Gendry could see what he believed to be her real personality showing up little by little, Arya went from being defensive and reserved to confident and outspoken. She even threw jokes at him, which had been a pleasant surprise. Also, Gendry could see Arya fighting the feelings of distrust and fear he was sure had been with her for a long time and was so incredibly thankful for that, he wanted to hug her even more.

He was still being careful to not get too attached to Arya, or at least that’s what he told himself, just in case she decided to back off. But he could see he was gaining her trust and could feel their connection growing stronger so he was hopeful things were going to work out.

After a while, Arya started feeling hopeful as well, the first few dates had been both the best and the worst for her. The best because she really enjoyed discovering what kind of person Gendry was and finding out more about his life and what he liked. The worst because by being with him, she had been forced to confront her own demons and although she knew Gendry would be glad to share that struggle with her, Arya also knew she had to make those changes herself.

Fortunately, Gendry have been proving again and again he was up to the challenge, not hesitating once despite her strange behaviour sometimes. Now Arya could notice the negative feelings finally fading, enough to let something else take their place. Something new for her, desire.

Arya had never been envious of her siblings’ relationships, but at some point she found herself wanting what Sansa had with Theon, the way he treated her and how despite being a certified clown, it was obvious how much he loved her sister.

Arya wasn’t ready yet to do the things Sansa kept suggesting her to do with and to Gendry, but she definitely wanted more. Also, Arya started feeling annoyed because Gendry was still keeping his distance. She knew it was ridiculous to feel that way, she was the one telling him to be patient and he was only respecting her wishes, but she felt annoyed anyway.

\-----

The first time Gendry suggested the cinema, Arya said no. The idea of not having Nymeria with her and being in a dark place surrounded by strangers seemed like too much at the time. Arya felt silly later, she could function perfectly well without Nymeria, Gendry was not a stranger anymore and she knew he wasn’t going to do anything bad to her, but it still took her a couple of weeks to get over it.

The previous day, Arya had been the one suggesting the new Marvel movie. Tonight, she was getting ready to meet Gendry after work, she wasn’t even nervous and she felt proud of herself for that. Arya said goodbye to a very grumpy Nymeria and left alone.

Gendry was already waiting for her outside the cinema and Arya took a moment to appreciate how well he looked in those black trousers, grey shirt and a jacket as she walked towards him.

They bought overpriced popcorn and sodas and watched the Avengers fight amongst themselves, following Tony or Steve. Arya enjoyed the audience cheering when Spider-Man appeared and Gendry enjoyed even more seeing Arya having fun.

\-----

Arya’s real address was still private so after the movie they were waiting for her taxi to arrive while still discussing the movie. They agreed on Team Cap because fuck rules, but Gendry disagreed with Arya’s opinion about one of the characters.

“I think Bucky is quite attractive,” Arya said and she couldn’t help but chuckle when she saw Gendry’s face.

“Really?” He replied, trying to look like he didn’t care.

“Yes,” Arya confirmed in a casual tone.

“OK.”

“Gendry Waters, are you jealous of a fictional character?” Arya was struggling to keep a straight face.

“Of course not!” Gendry exclaimed in a clearly fake sarcastic tone. “I actually like Black Widow.”

“Oh, you like Natasha?” Arya was about to laugh at Gendry’s expression.

“Yes!”

“Then it’s fine if I like Bucky.”

“Completely fine.”

“Good.”

“Good!”

Gendry was being just too cute and silly and Arya couldn’t take it anymore, she took his face between her hands to bring him closer to her and kissed him, just like that, no warning. Even Arya was a bit surprised but she didn’t let go for a few more seconds.

Everything was so fast, Gendry barely had time to register Arya’s hands on his face and her lips on his until it was already happening and it ended just as fast as it started. Once Arya broke the kiss, Gendry looked at her fearing to find regret in her eyes, but there was no trace of it on them. Instead they were inviting, Arya wanted this as well.

Gendry felt free to do what he had been wishing for pretty much since he laid eyes on Arya for the first time. He kissed her again, this time absorbing every detail. The softness of her lips, the fainted taste of popcorn, the sensation of his arms surrounding her waist, her body willingly getting closer to him and her hands switching from his face to his neck.

Kissing Arya was every bit as good as Gendry imagined it to be, he would have kissed her for hours if not because her taxi was inopportune enough to arrive. He audibly groaned, which made Arya laugh. “See you later?”

“Yes, you will,” Gendry answered nodding and stealing one last kiss before letting her get in the car.

\-----

The next time they saw each other, Gendry kissed Arya as soon as he could, just to make sure he hadn’t imagined doing it and was so relieved when he felt Arya returning the kiss. He was also surprised when he heard a happy “woof” and remembered, Nymeria wasn’t with them last time, this was the first time she saw them kissing. Gendry knelt down to talk to the wolf.

“Hi girl, are you OK with me kissing Arya? I don’t want to lose your favour, you are my favourite.”

Arya pushed Gendry’s shoulder. “Hey!” she said and he grinned.

Nymeria put her paw on Gendry’s knee and gave him a determined “woof!”

“That means yes,” Arya translated.

Gendry took the wolf’s paw on his hands and inclined his head, “thank you m’lady.”

“Oh come on, don’t call her that, it sounds weird.”

Gendry stood up and took Arya’s waist to bring her closer to him, “then I’ll call you m’lady.”

“Don’t you dare!” Arya replied. Gendry smirked and kissed her again, enjoying every second of it.

\-----

The changes during the following weeks were small but significant, physical contact was a good one. Gendry thought it was going to take Arya more time but to his delight, Arya was comfortable with him holding her and kissing her. She often approached him herself before Gendry did and even better, she started behaving like an actual girlfriend.

She allowed him to take a picture of the two of them and he was pleased when she asked him to send it to her phone so she could have it too. Arya also started going for Gendry to work the days they had lunch together instead of meeting him on the little park or the café. She won Davos in no time and eventually met Edric, which was an interesting experience for Arya.

One afternoon, Arya went to the shop to pick Gendry up and Edric scurried to the front before Gendry could stop him.

“Hi! I’m Edric Storm, I work with Gendry,” he said offering Arya his hand. Arya took it but before she could answer Edric started talking in a fast and enthusiastic tone. “Of course Gendry sure told you about his great co-worker by now. And this is Nymeria, hi Nymeria.”

The wolf looked at Edric intrigued; this human’s energy was contagious.

“Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you how glad I am you gave our boy Gendry a chance, he was so sad, for real sad and look at him now! He actually smiles! He is even making prettier things. I’m telling you, his last pieces are cool!”

“Goodbye Edric.” Gendry was standing just outside the workshop’s door with a serious expression. His voice made Arya, Edric and Davos, who had been repressing laughter from his desk, turn around. Edric was the first to talk again.

“Oh, come on man! I just wanted to meet your girl. And she is pretty, you are pretty! But OK, the love birds want to be alone. Nice to meet you Arya, bye Nymeria.”

Edric gave them a big smile and walked back to the workshop. Davos covered his mouth to hide the chuckle and that made Gendry rolled his eyes.

Arya waited until they couldn’t be seen from inside the shop to giggle. “He has quite a personality.”

“I swear for the Seven he has two personalities. He is so serious and professional when he is inside the workshop and a child without a filter in his mouth when he is outside.”

“He is just being nice, Gendry. And we agree on something, I’m glad you are smiling more as well.”

That relaxed Gendry right away. He shook his head and kissed Arya’s forehead.

“You know what’s curious?” Arya said, taking Gendry’s hand to keep walking.

“What?”

“Your shop is full of water.”

“Excuse me?” He asked confused.

“Well, you are a Waters, your boss is a Seaworth and Edric is a Storm. Water all around.”

Gendry never saw it like that and now he would never see it any other way. He loved how Arya could see small details in ordinary things.

“That is… weirdly accurate. I never noticed.”

“Well, it made sense now I met your friend.”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to call him that.”

“Don’t be rude, he is just trying to make friends. Your nameday is coming up, maybe you could invite him. Think of him as a little, slightly annoying brother,” Arya finished jokingly.

That finally made Gendry laugh but he got the point, maybe it was not such a bad idea to include Edric a bit more. Gendry knew how it was like not to have many friends.

“Speaking about that, there’s someone I would like you to meet before.”

“Who?”

“My best friend, Hot Pie. Remember I told you he is opening a café/bakery? I promised to help him install the shelves and I was wondering if you would like to come with me. Only if you want of course.”

Just a few months ago, the idea of going to see a stranger in an unknown place with someone she met not long ago would have been a big ‘No’. But now Arya felt exited to go meet someone she knew was important to Gendry.

“I’d love to,” Arya answered.

\-----

A few days later, Arya saw Gendry coming out of the workshop with a tool box and felt glad she was finally going to have the opportunity to see him working with his hands. She was curious to see him, even if it was only going to be something simple.

They walked to a building with only two floors. A big window on the ground floor showed an almost empty space, only broken by a counter and a few cardboard boxes.

Gendry opened the door, looked around and called his friend. “Hey Hot Pie! Where are you?”

Hot Pie came out from the kitchen area. “Mate! Hi, thank you from coming.”

“No problem. Hot Pie, I would like you to meet someone. This is Arya.”

Arya stepped out from her position behind Gendry. She was nervous, not because of fear but because she wanted to give a good first impression.

“Hi,” Arya said offering her hand.

But Hot Pie was not having any of that formality nonsense, “Arya, it is so good to finally meet you!” He said with a grin before proceeding to grab Arya by her shoulders and smash a kiss on her cheek.

That froze Arya and made Gendry held his breath, but after a moment she started laughing and Gendry relaxed. “It’s great to meet you too Hot Pie, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Everything bad, I hope.”

“Every single word,” Arya replied and Hot Pie assumed a proud position.

Then he looked at the mountain of fur still partially behind Gendry. “And this must be Nymeria.”

“She is, Nymeria come meet Hot Pie.”

The wolf stepped closer and sniffed Hot Pie. ‘This human smells like bread’, she thought. Then she sat next to Arya.

Gendry had seen Nymeria’s behaviour with other people several times by now but she never ceased to impress him. First because she was so polite and respectful, but most of all because now he understood how rare her attitude with him was and why Arya was so confused about it at first. He had to admit he felt lucky about that.

\-----

The three of them took the corresponding shelves out of the kitchen while Nymeria supervised from a corner and Gendry got his hammer and screwdriver ready. Arya saw him working his magic on the shelves, the movement of his muscles evident even under his shirt and his strength, lifting the wood as if it was nothing.

She was about to get lost on Gendry’s arms but remembered she wasn’t alone and had to distract herself before her face revealed she was asking herself the now frequent questions of how that body would look like naked and how would it feel like to have it against hers, touching her.

Arya took a deep breath and asked Hot Pie about the place.

It had been his dream for a long time and he had been saving money for years while working in a restaurant. He complained, to Gendry’s amusement, of how expensive the damn appliances were and said he still needed to take care of some details, like painting the shelves Gendry was installing, buy some stencils to put the name of the place on the window and get all the food. He expected to be ready for the big opening in a couple of weeks.

As soon as Hot Pie mentioned the window, Arya had an idea. “What do you mean stencils? You don’t have a logo?”

“No, I’m not good at drawing, so stencils will do.”

“No way, let me draw something for you.”

“You don’t have to, for real.”

“I insist,” Arya said with a determined voice.

Arya took her notepad and a pencil out of her bag before Hot Pie could argue. “Would you like something round or more like a square or a rectangle?” Arya waited for a surprised Hot Pie to answer with the pencil already on her hand.

Gendry didn’t turn around, but felt his heart swell with gratitude for this gorgeous girl.

Arya sketched a design with Hot Pie’s input and when Gendry announced the shelves were done and he was ready to finish the ones in the kitchen, Arya told Hot Pie she would make a clean sketch while he helped Gendry inside. Once they were alone in the kitchen, Gendry asked Hot Pie about Arya.

“She is a good one mate, and I’m not saying it because she just made me a logo, I mean it. I don’t think she is the kind that will play with you.”

“She is not, far from it. I just hope she decides to stay with me.”

“I have the feeling she already made that decision. I met her today and it is already obvious how she feels about you. The way she looks at you,” Hot Pie shook his head before finishing. “You cannot fake that.”

“I hope you are right, because I think I’m falling for her.”

Hot Pie took a peek at a busy Arya on the front and looked at Gendry again. “My friend, I think you already did that.”

\-----

The work was done before long and they ordered pizza for dinner. Hot Pie promised them a mean pizza once he had the food ready and Gendry assured Arya Hot Pie’s cooking was the best.

While they were eating, Arya asked when would be convenient for Hot Pie to receive her to work on the window. Hot Pie almost chokes.

“You are a famous artist, I couldn’t possibly pay you!” Hot Pie finally answered.

“First, I’m not that famous and second, you don’t have to pay me, I’m happy to do it.”

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable; you already designed me a logo, that’s more than enough.”

“I will tell you what, you pay for the material I’ll need and I will donate my time as a ‘Welcome to the neighbourhood’ gift, what about that?”

Hot Pie looked at Gendry sitting next to Arya. He smiled and nodded. “Only if you agree to receive free sandwiches for an entire year.”

“Mr Hot Pie, we have a deal,” Arya said shaking Hot Pie’s hand.

\-----

“Thank you for doing that for Hot Pie, he is struggling with the budget already.” Gendry said while reaching their usual ‘goodbye point’.

“I can imagine that, starting from scratch is hard. I’m just glad I can help.”

Gendry got closer and whispered, “you’re the best,” before kissing Arya.

Soon it was time to go, Arya was going to say something but stopped, “I…”

“What?” Gendry asked, still holding her waist.

After a moment she answered, “I’m glad you introduced me to Hot Pie, he is really nice.” She kissed Gendry again, making it last. “Good night.”

“Good night.”

\-----

“I was this close to invite Gendry home tonight, you know,” said Arya, showing Nymeria two of her fingers very close together. The wolf sniffed her hand.

Arya sat on her sofa and scratched Nymeria’s head. “That’s a big one. Are we ready to invite Gendry to our private space, girl?”

The wolf moved her ears and emitted a low “woof,” her eyes never leaving Arya’s.

Arya smiled, “if he comes, he might spend the night, would that be OK?”

Nymeria voiced a firm “woof” this time and put her head on Arya’s leg.

“Well, if you approve… I’ll sleep on it and decide later, I’m tired.”

Arya kissed Nymeria’s head and stood up. She made sure the wolf had food and water on her dishes and walked to her room.

Nymeria watched her human until she disappeared behind her door. She could perceive the love her human felt for the nice male human and how strongly he returned those feelings. She didn’t quite understand why they had to say goodbye at night, it’s not like there’s not enough space here to adopt him. He could be Nymeria’s second human and she would take care of the both of them. The wolf hoped her human would adopt him already so she could do it as well.

\-----

The following Saturday Hot Pie was going to move all of his expensive appliances, along with his utensils, dishes and basically everything that was not food to the café and Arya wanted to go to work on the window but Gendry had to be at Seaworth’s all morning so Arya took Nymeria and went to see Hot Pie by herself.

By the time Gendry arrived, most of the window was already done. He watched her from outside while she was carefully finishing the details in one of the corners and Arya was so focused, it took her a few seconds to realise her boyfriend was there. She muttered a “hi” which Gendry returned before going inside.

The three of them took a late lunch together and then Hot Pie claimed he had to go buy a few more things. Gendry suspected that had been code for ‘go spend some time with your girl’ and silently thanked his friend for that.

Once they were outside, Hot Pie admired his new window and suddenly bear hugged Arya. “Thank you!” He said, still with his arms around her.

“It was my placer Hot Pie,” Arya replied.

“I will see you both for the opening next week, OK? And bring your boss and that kid you work with mate, they are invited as well.”

“Will do,” Gendry replied.

Gendry watched Hot Pie walking away. “So, what do you want to do? We can go to Crownlands Park to play with Nymeria.”

“Actually, I’d like to take you somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“You’ll see, come on.” Arya took Gendry’s hand and started walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is full of notes.
> 
> 1\. I chose Civil War as the 'new Marvel movie' because I thought this version of Arya would enjoy Avengers movies but its ending doesn't leave you emotionally destroyed, unlike the last two. That was not the mood I wanted just before their first kiss. (Just ignore the fact that it is technically a Captain America movie).
> 
> 2\. My original plan was to keep Edric as a background character only for something small at the end but the guy WOULDN’T SHUT UP!!! So I upgraded him to minor character and gave him some dialogue, I even made a tiny edition to his first mention on Chapter 1 to give him continuity. I guess he will be mentioned more often than I thought during the last chapters so I hope you like this wacky version of him.
> 
> 3\. Ahem... Sexy time next chapter.
> 
> 4\. Thank you for reading, you are the best!!!


	6. Big Days Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya invites Gendry to her house for the first time and Gendry's nameday arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was my intention to post the following two chapters as one, but a couple of the scenes ended up being too long and I decided to divide it instead of having an almost 7,000 words chapter.
> 
> I thought of it (parts 1 and 2) as an ensemble of happy moments happening through the months before Arya's next exhibition, which will lead us to the ending of the story.
> 
> Last but not least, it is my first time writing smut. It is not the smuttiest scene in the universe but I hope you are not disappointed.

Arya stopped walking in the middle of a street Gendry didn’t recognise. It was just an ordinary street with houses in both sides. “Where are we?” Gendry asked confused.

Arya took a moment to answer, she looked a bit nervous. “Well… This is my house,” she said pointing at the house on his left. “Would you like to come in? It is early for dinner but we can watch TV in the meantime.”

Gendry looked at Arya, stunned while she talked. He wasn’t expecting this to happen today. “For real?” He finally managed to answer.

“Of course silly, come.” Arya grabbed his hand and took him to the door.

She opened the door and dragged Gendry inside followed by Nymeria, then closed it again. She introduced the code of the alarm so it didn’t send a distress call and the string of quick beeps stopped.

“Sorry, it only gives me 20 seconds.”

“It’s fine.”

“Wait just a moment.”

Arya opened the window facing the street that was also protected with security bars to let the air inside and went back to the alarm to activate it again.

“Ready.” Arya took Gendry’s arm to guide him into the living room. “It is small but it is home.”

Gendry took a quick look around. “No, my flat is small, this is big.”

“Do you want something to drink?”

“Sure.”

“Have a sit,” she said and walked to the kitchen.

Gendry sat down and looked around more carefully. The place was indeed bigger than his flat but still small; the things that made it look bigger were the open space between the living room and dining area and the general lack of décor. Besides the TV against the wall in front of him, the only decorations were three framed pictures on a little table by the window.

Arya had already shown him images of her family so he recognised her parents on the bigger frame, also Jon and Sansa on the second one with Arya between them. She was wearing the dress he remembered from her website and the three were holding glasses of champagne. The third was of her brothers back home, Robb smiling behind Bran’s wheelchair and Rickon at his side.

Gendry was intrigued by Bran, Arya had told him that Robb believed he was a hacker because he often had information he definitely shouldn’t have. Gendry wondered if it was true.

Arya appeared with two glasses of lemonade and sat next to him. “Thank you for inviting me.” Gendry moved his body a little bit to be closer to her.

“Took me long enough.” Arya was only half joking about that, Gendry only shook his head. “So, what do you think? I know there’s not much here but I didn’t have time to decorate at first and then I kind of forgot. All the mess is in my studio.”

“That would be interesting to see.” Gendry said before sipping his lemonade.

“Is that a request, Waters?”

“Can I request it?” Gendry asked with an innocent tone.

Arya smirked and stood up. “Come, I’ll show you.”

Arya told him once her studio had been originally a bedroom, so Gendry didn’t know exactly what to expect. When she opened the door, what he saw was Arya’s personality splashed all over a room. There was a small desk on a corner with a laptop, a lamp, a board with notes and some stationary. That was the only tidy bit in the room, the rest was chaos.

An old looking easel holding an unfinished canvas dominated the room. There was a table with several glasses containing brushes of different sizes, pencils, pens, markers, scissors, other tools unknown to Gendry and some brushes drying on a cloth. A cabinet against other wall had paints of different brands and colours on top, but he could only guess the content of the drawers.

There were canvases against all the walls, some of them looked fresh or newer, other were covered with fabric and Gendry saw two new ones covered with plastic in a corner. The walls had random pictures and sketches sticked to them. The floor looked like it had seen its fair share of stains as well as a stool next to the easel. Gendry was glad Arya allowed him to see this.

“This is better than what I imagined.” Gendry was still looking around.

“Is it?” Arya didn’t think so.

“Yes. Messy and interesting, just like the owner.” Gendry joked, already anticipating Arya’s reaction.

“Hey!” She slapped his arm playfully. “I’m not that messy.”

Gendry took the opportunity to hold her waist. “But you are interesting and beautiful.”

“And you are delusional.”

“Very.” Gendry nodded like accepting an unavoidable truth, making Arya laugh.

Arya put her arms around his neck and whispered, “you silly man,” just before kissing him.

At first everything was ‘normal’, but having actual privacy turned the kissing session into something else in no time. Before they knew it Arya was sitting on the table with Gendry fiercely kissing her. She was holding him with both arms and legs to get him closer to her; he could feel the friction between their respective trousers.

Arya started running her fingers underneath the collar of Gendry’s shirt and through his upper back while the other hand played with his hair. Gendry slipped his own hands from Arya’s waist to the edge of her top and ventured underneath, touching her bare skin and running his hands up her back until he reached her bra. He put two fingers under the strap, massaging the area and making her shiver.

Gendry moved even closer, shaking the table and almost knocking down a couple of the glasses, which made Arya stop. ‘Did I go too far?’ he thought, but her face was still close to his and her eyes were filled with desire. Arya only said two words before moving, “my room.” She pushed him gently to be able to stand up and took his hand to guide him.

Gendry whispered “your room,” more to himself than to her; he took Arya's hand and followed her down the hallway.

Arya closed the door as soon as they were inside and led Gendry to sit on the bed. She sat on him to reassume what they were doing on the studio, only this time she took off his shirt, touching his chest and his arms while they kissed. Gendry put a finger under her bra strap again and slid it around her torso until he reached the edge of her breast, caressing it softly, which made Arya sigh.

Her hands went from him to her top, taking it off and throwing it on the floor, then doing the same with her bra before taking her mouth to his again. Gendry kissed Arya’s neck, slowly going down to her breast while his hands went up, touching the soft skin, kissing, licking, savouring her nipples.

Gendry already felt his erection growing so he swiftly switched positions to put Arya on the bed. He quickly took off her shoes, unbuttoned her trousers and pulled down the rest of her clothes, leaving her completely naked.

He finished undressing himself, not that there was much to take off at that point, barely taking his eyes off of Arya while he did. When Gendry was done, instead of lying on top or next to Arya he went to her feet and started kissing her from there, going up her legs.

Gendry kissed as much of Arya as he possibly could, making a few stops on his way up. Her thighs were soft and warm, kissing them made Arya produced an exclamation Gendry found to be the most delicious thing, or that’s what he thought until he reached her sex. As he explored Arya, her moans were an exquisite revelation, feeling the spasms on her muscles made Gendry harder than he already was.

He continued his way up her stomach and waist, eventually finding Arya’s breasts again, devouring them. But Arya was already growing impatient and trying to lift Gendry’s face to hers to be able to kiss him.

Gendry decided to make one more stop before taking his mouth to Arya’s. He went up her breasts and straight to her neck. A second round of moans followed by a deep groan when he put two of his fingers inside her already wet sex confirmed Arya was ready. Gendry pressed his lips to hers at last and Arya returned the kiss eagerly. After a few seconds, Gendry couldn’t resist her anymore and pushed himself inside Arya.

They took their time to explore. What they liked, their preferred spots to kiss or touch each other and what caused the strongest reactions, what made them tick.

Gendry was on top at first, which allowed Arya to enjoy the body she had been lusting for, touching, liking, biting him freely. At some point they switched positions. Arya rode him, feeling the pleasure of having Gendry inside her while his hands touched the rest of her.

Then Arya wanted him close again, she pulled Gendry to make him sit and kissed him while pushing herself on him so he could reach deeper inside her. The movement was slow at first, but once they adjusted their positions both pushed harder and faster, as if they wanted to merge with the other.

Arya peaked first, moaning so close to Gendry’s ear it sent a chill down his spine. She bit her lip, savouring the moment, but didn’t stop moving to allow Gendry to finish. When he was about to, he had to move fast to place Arya on her back and get out on time, depositing his seed on her lower abdomen.

Both were out of breath, but Gendry managed to kiss Arya before resting next to her for a moment.

“Do you have paper?” Gendry asked.

“Side table.” Arya raised her arm to point at the table on the left side of the bed.

Gendry stood up to go and take some tissues to clean himself and give to Arya.

“We will need condoms.” Arya said.

“I’ll bring some.” Gendry replied, suddenly realising the implications of that. This was going to keep happening.

Once Arya was clean, she walked closer to Gendry and without touching him got into an already partially unmade bed, making sure her whole body was visible to Gendry while she did it.

“Are you joining me or will you just stare at me?” Arya said playfully.

Gendry smirked and walked around the bed to lie down as well, holding Arya as soon as he could.

\-----

They ate pasta and chicken that Arya, suspiciously enough, had already prepared in her fridge. But Gendry was not about to complain about that, especially when Arya was only wearing an oversized t-shirt that allowed him to see her legs and outlined her silhouette if she moved the right way.

After dinner, Arya left Gendry in charge of the dishes while she went around the house checking that everything was ready for the night.

“Done, everything locked.”

“Does that mean I’m trapped in here, Stark?”

“Waters, you are mine for the night.” Arya ran her finger through his collarbone.

“That sounds perfect,” Gendry said before kissing her.

\-----

Hot Pie’s big day was a fun occasion. He had done a good job promoting the place because there was a steady stream of people coming in and out. The window framed with balloons and the sound of music attracted even more from the street. Lommy, other of their friends, had offered to take care of the counter for the day, which was already full of tasty things to sell. Hot Pie had also made samples to offer to people. When Arya, Gendry, Davos and Edric arrived, they were received with hugs and cookies.

“This place smells amazing man, it’s intoxicating!” Edric said with a dreamy expression, which made Hit Pie grin.

“This looks great mate!” Gendry was glad the place was full. “Do you need any help?”

“Thanks, man! Not right now but I’ll let you know. Sorry, I have to keep going but have a mini sandwich or a piece of brownie; there are more snacks on the counter, see you in a bit.” Then he was gone to be a social bee with more people.

Half an hour later, Davos excused himself to go back to the shop, but Gendry and Edric were free to stay. After a while more people arrived and it was obvious Hot Pie was being overwhelmed so Gendry took a tray with mini sandwiches, Arya one with bite sized pieces of pizza and even Edric took some cookies. They started circulating around as well. Gendry could hear Edric talking in his normal enthusiastic voice but he wasn’t saying anything too crazy and people seemed entertained so he stopped worrying.

Once the guests were gone and everything was over, the group sat on a circle chatting and eating pizza fresh from the oven. When the time to go home came, Arya asked Gendry to stay with her again.

\-----

Gendry was not a ‘big parties’ guy, he usually celebrated his nameday by inviting Hot Pie and Lommy to his flat on the weekend to eat junk food and watch movies or play videogames. Only this year was different, he had Arya now, which would make his nameday special.

When Arya asked what he normally did and Gendry told her, she agreed to go, which had been a relief for Gendry. Arya also said she wanted to invite him dinner on his actual nameday, which was going to be two days before. Gendry had been delighted at the time, but now he knew where she lived and they were being intimate, Arya notified him that she was cooking something special for him instead and he was expected at her house after work.

\-----

Gendry arrived to the shop that day in a good mood; he received a loud “Happy Nameday!!!” from Edric and a message from Arya sending him kisses. Davos was out the whole morning and arrived just in time to invite him lunch. Edric was starting his training to assist clients and he got really nervous when he was informed he would be in charge of the shop for an entire hour. Gendry couldn’t help but being amused by that.

Davos took Gendry to the café and after ordering he told him he had a gift. “Here, open it.”

Gendry received the envelope Davos was offering him and took out some papers. When he saw what they were he froze in disbelief.

“I went to see my son today. He made the paperwork for me, good thing he is a layer. You are officially my partner now, or you will be when you sign those.”

Gendry raised his eyes from the papers “Davos, this… this is too much.”

“It’s not. You do most of the work these days anyway, you deserve it.”

Gendry had to take a moment to recover, he couldn’t believe his luck. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes and sign the papers before the food arrives, you don’t want stains on those things.” 

Davos took a pen out of his pocket and showed Gendry the pages his son had marked for signatures.

“Thank you Davos, you have no idea how much this means.”

“What it means is that my shop will be in good hands when I retire.”

“But you are not leaving soon, right?”

“Damn no, my bones still have some energy and I have to get that kid ready to help you. I will keep honouring you with my presence, don’t worry.”

\-----

The night was, to say it in one word, perfect. Gendry couldn’t wait to tell Arya the news and he had to repress tears when she told him she was proud of him. Arya prepared a dinner worthy of a King and a homemade cake with little candles for him to blow out. To his surprise, she also had a gift.

“Wait here, I’ll bring your gift.” Arya rushed to her studio and came out with a rectangle wrapped in paper decorated with balloons.

“You already made me dinner and you give me a gift as well?”

“Well, yes. It’s about time you have one of these. Open it.”

Arya gave him the gift. ‘She painted something for me,’ he thought. Gendry unwrapped it carefully to not damage the surface. It was one of those snapshots made with colour pencils and crayons, he had told Arya those ones were his favourites ages ago and she remembered.

The image was an almost exact reproduction of the little park they went to during their first ‘date’. Arya knew how much Gendry liked the place, he loved the peace and relative privacy the park provided and often went there to think or just to relax. It became more important after he met Arya because a lot of their first good moments happened there, so he was very touched when he saw it.

Gendry touched a corner with his fingertips, not quite believing he had a piece of Arya’s art made especially for him. When he raised his eyes, Arya was looking at him in silence, waiting. Without letting go of his gift, he leaned forward and took her face with his free hand.

“I love it, thank you.” Gendry was looking straight into her eyes to make sure Arya knew how important this was for him.

Arya grinned. “You are welcome.”

Then he had to leave it on the table to get closer to Arya and kiss her.

\-----

Later that night, once Gendry was in bed with a sleepy Arya curled in his arms, he tried to remember the last time he had been so happy. He sighed and the change on his breathing made Arya move her head to face him.

“You are still awake.” She said in a dreamy voice.

“I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“Can you die of happiness?”

“I hope not, or we are both in trouble.”

Gendry laughed softly and kissed her forehead. Then, with his mouth still touching Arya’s skin, he said something he wasn’t planning on saying at that moment. “I love you.”

He realised he did it once the words were already out and panicked, he didn’t want to ruin such a perfect night by saying something Arya wasn’t ready to hear.

Arya looked at him, fully awake. She was surprised; it was obvious she wasn’t expecting that.

Gendry reacted with the only thing he could think of. “It just came out. You don’t have to say it back, don’t worry.”

Arya raised her hand to hold Gendry’s face without taking her eyes from his. “I love you too.” Her voice was low but firm, with no signs of hesitation or doubt.

Gendry kissed her, holding her as close as possible. Arya could feel his heart beating faster and kept kissing him until it started slowing down again to a normal speed. When she looked at him again, his eyes where shining so brightly she could see the blue even in the middle of the dark room. That shine immediately became one of her favourite things and silently promised herself to make sure this was not the only time she saw it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have absolutely no idea of how the legal process to create a partnership works, so I just wrote what made sense for the story. Sorry for the inaccuracies I’m sure this has.
> 
> Yes, I took a line from Pride and Prejudice, I regret nothing.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for reading!!!


	7. Big Days Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gendry meets Jon and Sansa and Arya gets ready for her exhibition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of the chapter, here we go...

A month later, it was Arya’s turn to celebrate her nameday. This year Jon was hosting a reunion for her and Daenerys specifically asked Arya to bring Gendry with her. Arya could smell her siblings’ conspiracy from 10 miles away but she also thought it was about time they met Gendry so she accepted without arguing. The next step was telling Gendry.

“So, my brother wants to celebrate my nameday on his house this year.” Arya said casually while walking Nymeria in the park.

“Oh… OK. We can plan something for the two of us before or after.”

“Sure, we will.” Gendry nodded. “But actually, you are invited too.”

“What?”

“Well, they want to meet you and I think it’s about time they do. If that’s OK with you, of course.”

The invitation took Gendry by surprise, but to be perfectly honest, he was pleased. Meeting her family was important. “Of course it’s OK, I’d love to go.”

Gendry tried to say that in the most natural way he could manage, but Arya could perceive a hint of satisfaction in his voice.

\-----

On his way to Arya’s house, Gendry was trying to convince himself he wasn’t nervous and failing. He knew there was nothing to worry about, he had been hearing about her family for months now and they were good people. But he had discovered that the old expression ‘butterflies in your stomach’ was accurate in a way he didn’t know was possible and was still checking his shirt every two minutes.

Gendry arrived and left his gift a couple of steps at his side, where Arya couldn’t see it. He knocked and waited, but when Arya opened Gendry didn’t move.

“What? Are you going to stay there?” Arya was confused.

“Step aside and close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Arya looked at Gendry for a couple of seconds and moved from the door.

Gendry peeked inside. “Eyes closed.”

Arya wasn’t sure what this was about but she closed them anyway, staying still with her hand holding the door. A moment later, she heard Gendry stepping inside, his voice saying ‘Hi’ to Nymeria and the noise of something being placed on the floor.

“Don’t open them yet, I’ll close the door.” Arya opened her hand when she felt the door moving. Once that was done, she heard Gendry’s voice again. “OK, you can open them now.”

Arya opened her eyes; standing in front of her was a brand new easel. It was made of strong wood, carefully varnished and with an adjustable mechanism on the top to secure the canvases, which was currently holding a big red ribbon bow.

Nymeria was already sniffing it so Arya approached as well. Gendry had been going to her house for a while at that point but he had only been in her studio a few times and yet, he noticed her easel was already falling into pieces.

Arya touched the holder and one of the legs. “Did you make this?” Her gaze was still on the easel.

“Yes, after a bit of research. I wanted to get it right.”

Then Arya turned to look at Gendry. “Did you like i…” But Arya didn’t let him finish, she needed to kiss him, she needed to show him how much this meant to her. By the time Arya broke the kiss, Gendry had received the message.

“I absolutely adore it, thank you. You are the best boyfriend.” Arya was still holding him close to her so the words came out like a whisper only for Gendry’s ears.

\-----

They arrived to Jon’s house half an hour later with Nymeria leading the way. Daenerys opened the door with a bright smile, welcomed them and introduced herself. She was telling Gendry how nice it was to meet him at last when Jon came out.

“So you are Gendry.”

“I am, Gendry Waters.” He offered Jon his hand.

Jon took a moment to shake it and when he did, the grip was a little firmer than necessary. Gendry didn’t change his expression.

“I understand you are the author of that frame.”

Gendry turned around following Jon’s gaze and there it was, Arya’s painting of what he knew now was Winterfell surrounded by one of his best frames.

“I am, it is one of my favourite pieces actually.”

Daenerys took Jon’s arm. “It is beautiful, Gendry. I love how the snowflakes complement the painting,” she said to defuse the tension.

“Thank you, that was my idea when I made them.”

Then Gendry saw Ghost approaching, ‘Arya was serious when she said he was completely white’ he thought. Gendry was expecting him to be big but he wasn’t expecting the red eyes, so different from Nymeria’s golden. He tried to remain calm as the wolf came closer. Arya’s hand took his and gently squeezed to reassure him.

Ghost stood next to Jon and he only said, “Ghost, this is Gendry.”

Nymeria immediately sat next to Gendry and smiled at her brother. Ghost looked at Gendry and sniffed him, then looked at Nymeria and again at Gendry. Last, he raised his gaze to see Jon and turned around to walk away without making one sound. Nymeria followed him this time.

Gendry didn’t know Ghost but Jon must have read something positive on him because after that, Jon seemed more relaxed and willing to talk with Gendry.

The next to arrive were Sansa and Theon, who took Gendry’s hand at once. “Theon Greyjoy, a placer to meet you,” he said with a slightly unsettling smile.

“A placer to meet you too Theon, I’m Gendry.”

Theon smile grew and stepped aside to let Sansa get closer. But before he was out of reach from Gendry’s ears he spoke to Jon, who was standing on the other side of the room. “Jon, is he alright or we’re gonna have to kill him?”

“Seriously Theon, shut up.” Sansa exclaimed and Theon laughed before reaching Jon. Sansa rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Gendry. “Don’t listen to him; he actually thinks he is funny.”

“It’s totally fine, don’t worry,” Gendry answered.

Sansa was significantly taller than Arya, with reddish hair and blue eyes instead of the brown hair and grey eyes he knew so well. If not because Gendry had seen pictures of their parents, he wouldn’t have believed they were sisters. Arya looked more like their father and Sansa more like their mother. It was unmistakable now he had Sansa in front of him.

“It is so good to meet you in person. I’ve heard a lot about you!” Sansa grinned.

“Oh, that’s what interrogating me about Gendry every time you see me is called now.” Arya spoke with a cynical tone.

“I’m just interested on my sister’s life. I’m sure you can appreciate that, right Gendry?”

“Of course,” Gendry replied, he was already repressing laughter.

“Come Gendry, sit with me and tell me everything Arya refuses to share with her poor sister.”

Arya cleared her throat and Gendry could hear a well pronounced “Nosy!” That made him chuckle.

The last to arrive was Syrio Forel. Arya introduced him and Gendry could distinguish a Braavosi accent. After a few minutes, he politely asked if he could steal Arya for a moment. It was never too early to start preparing this year’s exhibition.

Sansa caught Gendry looking at Arya, standing a few steps away from them and smiled. She took the opportunity to have a more serious word with him. “Arya has changed so much since she met you.” Gendry turned his gaze to pay attention to Sansa. “It’s not that she couldn’t function before, she had a life. But after what happened, it was like her emotions were muted.”

Gendry had spent all his energy on helping Arya to heal, but never thought about how the incident had affected her family. “I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been for you and Jon as well.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen Jon so scared or so angry, we both were. Jon is still very protective of Arya obviously; I hope he wasn’t rude to you.”

“He wasn’t, I think Ghost helped.”

Sansa giggled. “Well, if Jon hasn’t asked Ghost to eat you, then you are doing fine.”

“Good to know. What about you? I’m passing the test?”

“I think you pass it every time I have lunch with Arya these days. I started that little ritual after things settled down just to talk with Arya and for two years it was mostly work and Nymeria. One day she came to our date distracted because she had met a guy while ordering a frame for Jon and since then all I hear are stories about parks, restaurants, movies, museums, she gets excited about things again. Arya told me she went to see one of your friends to help him with a window, by herself. She wouldn’t have done that a year ago. Her personality is back, you did that.”

“She did it herself, I just made sure to be there for her. Just like you and Jon.”

“But you gave her the motivation we couldn’t. I’m grateful for that, and Jon would never admit it, but he is as well.”

“You have nothing to thank me, I like seeing Arya happy. Actually, I think the one with something to thank is me, you convinced her to accept a date with me.”

“I just made her see she was already interested in you.” Sansa changed her tone to end. “And I’m seriously glad you didn’t turn out to be a complete nut case.”

Gendry laughed at that, then felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned around to see Jon and Theon, who was holding three shots of Tequila.

Sansa groaned. “For real guys? Is it really necessary?”

“Come on love, we just want to know Gendry better.” Theon was smiling innocently, but that didn’t fool Sansa.

“Alright then, do your little act. I’ll do Jon’s job and go see if Daenerys needs help.”

Once they were alone Gendry stood up and took the shot Theon was offering him. He already had a good idea of what was coming so he raised his head and prepared to hear whatever came out of their mouths with a smile.

“Let’s drink to finally meeting you, Gendry.” Jon was smiling but Gendry didn’t let his ward down.

They drank their shots and both Jon and Theon got closer to Gendry so no one else could hear them. Jon grabbed Gendry’s shoulder and spoke with a low but deadly tone. “You know I work with the police quite often, right?”

“Yes.” Gendry used a neutral voice.

“If you hurt my little sister, if I see her even a bit sad because of you, I’ll make your death look like an accident and the police will believe me.”

Gendry nodded. “You don’t have to worry about that, I have no intention of hurting Arya. I love her.”

Both Jon and Theon looked at Gendry in silence for a moment. Jon spoke again, his eyes still on Gendry’s.

“He said it, Theon.”

“He said it,” Theon repeated.

“Did you hear it?”

“I heard it.”

Jon and Theon smiled and Gendry returned the gesture. “Good boy!” Jon exclaimed while giving Gendry a not very gentle pat in the shoulder.

Theon did the same on his other shoulder and then both disappeared without other word. Gendry wondered why they left so suddenly but understood when he turned around and saw Arya standing a couple of steps away, looking at the two men walking away.

“Were they bothering you?” Arya said, putting her arm around Gendry’s waist.

“No, they were just making sure I’ll behave. I would do exactly the same if I had a sister as pretty as you.”

“Well, I’m not your sister.”

“And that’s a good thing.” Gendry lowered his voice so only Arya could hear him. “Otherwise the things we do to each other would be incredibly inappropriate.”

“Gendry!” Arya exclaimed blushing.

To Arya’s annoyance, everyone asked questions to Gendry during dinner, which he was happy to answer. By the end of the evening, he and Theon were already joking and even Jon seemed to be in a good mood. Before leaving, Jon shook his hand again, but this time Gendry felt like the gesture was more genuine.

\-----

_TiK tOk TAK!_

\-----

Time flew and suddenly the opening night of this year’s exhibition was around the corner. Gendry decided that the only way he could help Arya was by taking care of as many things around her as possible so she could finish her paintings in peace. He practically lived in Arya’s house during the couple of weeks previous to the big night. Gendry cooked, rather well in Arya’s opinion and took Nymeria to the park so she didn’t get bored. He even cleaned a little bit, which Arya secretly enjoyed seeing.

\-----

_It’S aLmOsT tImE!_

\-----

One day Gendry arrived with a box full of samples from Hot Pie so Arya could choose the canapés she wanted to be served at the opening and took back the list with Arya’s choices. Hot Pie promised the best canapés in history.

\-----

_TiK tOk TAK!_

\-----

Three days before the exhibition Arya finally finished, but there were still a few things to do. She and Syrio made sure everything was ready at the gallery. She reviewed with Brienne the guest list to have a better idea of who was confirmed to go. Arya even allowed Sansa to accompany her to get a dress. The rest were just small shores for the romantic weekend Arya and Gendry were having after the opening, but she was glad to be out of her house doing them.

\-----

_To Go OuT aNd PlAy!_

\-----

The morning of the opening Arya went to drop Nymeria to Jon’s house so she could be with Ghost and minimize her time alone, then went straight to the gallery with her new dress carefully placed inside a protective cover. By 5:00 everything was ready and by 6:00 she was looking all elegant in the little changing room the gallery had for such occasions.

Hot Pie arrived with the food not long after that and casually whispered on Arya’s ear “Gendry’s jaw will drop when he sees you on that dress.” Arya laughed at that but she was indeed hoping Gendry liked it.

The photographer arrived 20 minutes before the start of the event and took advantage of those peaceful moments to take new pictures of Arya with her paintings. This time the chosen ones had been an animal that looked like a cross between a raccoon and a small dog with gold rimmed eyes, a door standing by itself in a beach and a circle of tall stones in a field.

The gallery was full in what seemed like a heartbeat. Every year more people came and Arya was busier than ever. Sansa and Theon arrived first, then Daenerys and Jon. Arya was finishing an interview when she saw Gendry, Davos and Edric coming in. Gendry was wearing an elegant black suit and looked absolutely gorgeous. Arya answered the last question and thanked the reporters, then walked straight to Gendry’s group; Edric was already speaking with his usual enthusiasm.

Gendry spotted Arya speaking with a couple of men, one of them holding a camera, and waited so she could finish. He took a moment to see her, Arya was wearing her hair in waves and a pale blue dress made of lace that ended just above her knees. She looked radiant and Gendry couldn’t believe how things changed. Last time he saw this gallery on her website, he didn’t even know if he would be able to see Arya again and now he was here as her boyfriend. When she approached he felt, without doubt, the luckiest guy in the world.

“…and this place is fancy! Everyone looks so elegant. I’m almost glad Davos made me use this thing.” Edric pulled the collar of his shirt to loosen the tie a little bit and stopped when Davos saw him. “Hi Arya! Thank you for inviting me, I’ve never been in a place like this. And all these paintings are yours, wow! Is that food?” He quickly changed the subject when he saw a waitress walking by with a tray.

“Yes,” Arya was amused as always she saw Edric. “It’s Hot Pie’s.”

“Cool! That means it’s good. Can I get some?”

“Of course, go ahead.” Edric was gone as soon as Arya answered.

Then Davos took Edric’s place next to Arya. “Congratulations dear, everything looks fabulous.”

“Thank you Davos, I’m glad you could come.”

Davos looked behind Arya and spoke with a calm voice. “Excuse me dear, I have to go make sure Edric doesn’t finish all the canapés by himself.” He inclined his head and left as well.

Gendry looked at Davos walking away and then down to encounter Arya’s eyes. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“You look absolutely gorgeous tonight, that dress suits you.”

“Thank you, it reminded me of your eyes.”

“You chose your dress because of my eyes?” Arya blushed and that made Gendry smile. He leaned so only Arya could hear him. “I’m flattered.” Gendry was going to say something else but Brienne appeared calling Arya’s attention.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt, but Miss Mormont is interested in the cybernetic bear painting. She wants to make a few questions before deciding if she wants to buy it.”

Arya looked at Gendry. “Go, go!” He immediately said.

“Have a look around, I’ll find you later.”

Gendry saw Brienne guiding Arya to a young woman with long brown hair standing in front of the painting of a huge bear with a few artificial parts visible between its fur.

He searched for Davos and Edric from where he was standing but didn’t see them. Gendry decided to go grab a drink and just when he was receiving one from a waitress he felt a hand on his shoulder accompanied by Theon’s voice.

“Gendry! Come have a drink with us.” And Theon took him to the Starks without waiting for an answer.

Gendry had seen Arya’s sibling a handful of times since her nameday and felt more comfortable in their company. Jon was still reserved but it seemed like he had accepted Gendry’s presence in Arya’s life, which Gendry considered a win. After a while, Arya appeared followed by the photographer.

“Good, you are already here,” Arya said to Gendry. She moved to stand between Jon and Theon and Gendry stepped back to give space to the photographer but Arya spoke again. “Where are you going? Come here.” She took Gendry’s arm to put him between her and Theon.

The photographer took a picture of all of them, one of Arya with Jon and Sansa and one of each couple. Gendry felt honoured to be included.

The rest of the night was gone in a second. Gendry saw Arya being social and cheerful, talking to what looked like a million people. He was introduced either by Arya or by the other Starks and their partners to a good number of said people. Gendry felt a sting of pride every time he heard the words ‘Arya’s boyfriend’ or ‘the artist’s boyfriend’ but when he eventually found Hot Pie, he was glad to see a familiar face.

Before Gendry knew it, they were saying goodbye to Syrio, Brienne and Podrick. The night had been a success and Arya looked tired but happy.

With such a hectic night, no one noticed the man lurking outside the gallery or the car following Arya and Gendry when they left.

\-----

Jon had agreed to lend them his car for the weekend so they took a taxi to go pick up Nymeria and the car. By the time they arrived to Arya’s house, both were exhausted.

“I’m ready for bed, but not in the sexy way.”

Gendry laughed and hugged Arya. “Don’t worry; we have a long weekend just for the two of us. I’ll only request a kiss tonight.” Arya took his face on her hands and kissed him, enjoying the moment of privacy after the busy day.

Then something hit the living room window and triggered the alarm. Both of them jumped and Nymeria came from her bed to investigate. Gendry looked thought the window while Arya tried to stop the alarm.

“I’m going outside.” Gendry was already opening the door.

“Gendry, no.” Arya wanted to stop him but her phone rang. The security company’s number.

“Hello?”

_‘Miss Stark? Your alarm was triggered, are you safe?’_

“I am, I think. My boyfriend went to investigate but I don’t see anything unusual from here.”

_‘OK, I’ll wait until your boyfriend is back.’_

Gendry came in shaking his head and closed the door behind him.

“My boyfriend came back, he didn’t see anything.”

_‘I understand Miss Stark, can you confirm the safe word for us, please.’_

“Direwolf.”

_‘Correct, can we do something else for you?’_

“Not tonight, thank you.”

_‘Alright, Miss Stark. Please reset your alarm and give us a call if you need anything. Good night.’_

“Good night.”

“What was that?” Gendry asked once Arya finished.

“The security company, if the alarm is triggered and I don’t answer or give the wrong word they send the police.”

Gendry was not a fan of having the alarm active the whole time, even in the middle of the day when the both of them were inside, but he never said anything because he knew how important it was for Arya. That night Gendry decided to get over it, he didn’t know what he would do if something happened to Arya.

“You really didn’t see anything, right?” Arya was trying to push the paranoia away.

Gendry knew her well enough by then to see it. “No, there was nothing. It was probably a cat.” He hugged her again, but this time to reassure her.

\-----

When her two humans went to sleep, Nymeria got closer to the window and sniffed around. It was weak through the glass but she could still perceive the smell of sweat, dirt and hate. It was a nasty smell, Nymeria didn’t like it. She stayed there for a while to make sure it didn’t come back. It was pretty late when she finally fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, you are the best!!!


	8. The Cottage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A romantic weekend turns into a nightmare when the past comes back to get revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a couple of liberties with Westeros geography to serve the story, please indulge me.

‘Alarm!’ The man ran and hid around the closest corner. ‘Stupid alarm!’

He had considered it was possible she would have one again, that was why the cops caught him the first time. That and because he rushed his visit and the cops were still watching her. But he was prepared for that now; everything was beautifully planned in his head. He just had to find a weak spot and act fast. The cops won’t be able to find her on time to save her. He had a lot of time to think about his plans and about her, what she made him go through and what he would do to her once he had her.

But he wasn’t expecting her to have a boy toy and a big, big dog; that would complicate things. He wouldn’t have time to take care of them and get her before the cops arrived.

‘You were supposed to be alone! Why you always have to ruin everything?’ He was tired and needed to think. ‘I should go back to the car.’

Except no, cops must be already looking for this car; he needed to get rid of it and find another one. One with a big trunk, to take her outside the city without being seen. To take her to the woods, where he could do as he pleased with her, watch her suffer.

Around noon the next morning, he was eating gummy bears in his “new” car down the road when he saw her, the boy toy and the big dog coming out of the house with small travelling bags.

He saw her standing outside of the house for a moment. ‘That’s the alarm,’ and then kiss boy toy, just like last night. ‘How dare he? She is my property, mine!’ He hit the sit to calm down.

“I will kill him first, right in front of her,” he whispered.

The dog kept looking in his direction so he lowered his head, but she made the dog get in the car. “That’s it, good doggy,” he muttered.

They were going somewhere. He could stay to find the way to get in the house without being noticed, or he could follow them. ‘Maybe they are going to a place without alarms.’ When boy toy started the car to drive away, so did he. 

\-----

Saying Detective Sandor Clegane was an intimidating person was not enough. He was a large, strong man with a nasty scar on the side of his face, the result of a fire in a crime scene he was investigating a bunch of years ago. He had little patience for bullshit and had no problem telling things as they were. The other cops called him ‘The Hound’ for his ability to connect clues and his ferocity while following them, which gained him the respect of the others, but not friendships.

Today he felt, as he often did, frustrated by the sluggishness and inefficiency of the entire Police Department. He had been looking for most of the day some files that were somehow misplaced. ‘That was code for one of these cunts lost them,’ he thought, and someone was going to pay for it. He saw the files guy sneaking inside the coffee room with a frightened expression and was heading in the same direction when someone called his name. 

“Detective Clegane, this arrived for you from Kingswood Psychiatric Institution, Sir.” The officer offered him the paper shaking as if he could lose the hand.

Sandor examined the document, remembering the case that brought him there a couple of years ago. “This happened two nights ago!” he snapped at the poor man.

“Sir,” the officer gulped. “They are transferring their data to a new system. They couldn’t find your contact info right away.” The man looked like he was about to cry.

Detective Clegane turned around and rushed to his office, opening his laptop as soon as he got in. He searched the name of the girl and immediately found the news. Her exhibition opened, like every year, on the last weekend of October. Thursday to be precise, and today was Friday.

“Fuck!” He shouted, startling people around his door.

He quickly searched for the contact, only to find Brienne of Tarth’s information. “No time for agents,” he growled.

After a second search he called the gallery. She had been there on Thursday for the opening party but was not expected to go back until next Tuesday, dead end. Then Sandor scrolled through his contacts for the person he was sure would know where to find her without the need of her agent slowing down things, Snow.

“Clegane?” Jon asked puzzled.

“Where’s your sister?” Sandor answered without any greetings.

“With her boyfriend, what’s going on?”  
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered to himself and then louder so Jon could hear him. “The Frey guy, he escaped.”

“What? When?” Jon exclaimed in a more urgent voice.

“Wednesday night, he hit a guard unconscious and took his car; the cunts at Kingswood didn’t notify me until today. Where with her boyfriend?”

Jon took a second to answer and when he did, he sounded like he was containing the rage of the entire city in his voice. “They went away on a romantic weekend, I don’t know exactly where. Come over here, I’ll call her and have the information by the time you arrive.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m going with you.”

“You’re not a cop.”

“”I’m trained for this kind of situations and you know it.”

“No.”

“Yes. I know where she is, you won’t be able to find the place without me. I’m going.”

“Obstruction of justice.”

“Are we really doing this right now, Clegane?”

Sandor considered it for a second and after audibly snorting he answered. “Alright then.”

“King's Road, north exit, twenty minutes,” Jon said and hung up the phone.

Sandor gathered the information he had so far and walked out of his office. He was going to need some help and the only half decent detective he would trust was, to his relief, still at the station. Sandor opened the door without knocking.

“Hello Clegane,” said the man sitting in front of Sandor without even looking up from the papers he was examining.

“Dondarrion, I need a solid.”

\-----

Jon hung up the phone and immediately called Arya but got no response. She had turned off her phone after her last message telling him they arrived safely and Jon wasn’t surprised. Arya had specifically told him she wanted to disconnect from the world for a few days after the pandemonium that had been preparing the exhibition this year and under other circumstances, he would have found it amusing, but not today.

He tried with Gendry next, the same. “Damn,” he muttered and called one of his men.

“Yes, boss.”

“Edd, are Pyp and Grenn back from their assignments?”

“Only Pyp Sir, Grenn is still with the client.”

“Get ready for a potentially dangerous situation and tell Pyp he is in charge until we come back, we are going to the woods near Harrenhal.”

“Something serious, boss?”

“I hope not, but I’d rather be prepared than sorry. We leave in five.”

Edd nodded and left. Jon was used to be ready at a moment’s notice and only took him a few seconds to get his things. Jacket, keys, gun, wallet, phone, everything ready. He walked to the car park while trying again Arya and Gendry’s numbers with no results. A couple of minutes later Edd was already driving the car.

\-----

When Sandor Clegane arrived to the meeting point, Jon and Edd were already there. They were on their way as soon as Jon got in Clegane’s car, with Edd driving behind them.

“Where to, then?” asked Sandor.

“Drive in the direction of Harrenhal, I’ll guide you when we get closer.”

“Was that so difficult to say on the phone?” Replied Sandor still annoyed for having to let Jon and his man go with him. Jon didn’t bother to reply.

\-----

“This place is fantastic.” Gendry was sitting at the table cutting another piece of cheese from a block they bought on the road.

“Yeah, we are lucky my uncle still owns it.” Arya received the cheese Gendry was offering her and bit it.

“Did you come here often as a child?”

“I only remember this one time while we were visiting Riverrun. Robb and Jon convinced me the ruins in the other side of the lake were haunted.”

“Nice of them.”

“Yeah, these days we only use this place as weekend getaway. I think my uncle is happy someone is actually using it.”

The cottage, property of the Tully family, was in the middle of the woods somewhere near Harrentown. The Starks liked the place because unless you knew where it was, it was difficult to find, which made it private and peaceful.

They had been there only for a couple of hours but Arya was already relaxed. As soon as they stepped inside, Arya messaged Jon and then made sure both her phone and Gendry’s were turned off and placed safely in the bottom of the wardrobe’s drawer upstairs, where they couldn’t represent any distraction.

“Why don’t we go and see the sunset by the lake? I want to stretch my legs and I’m guessing Nymeria wants to run as well.”

“Yep, that sounds like a plan. Let’s finish this… late lunch I guess it is and go, some walking would be nice. 

Thirty minutes later Arya, Gendry and Nymeria were heading to the lake.

\-----

It had been difficult to follow them without being noticed, but as soon as Elmar saw the place, he formulated a new and improved plan in his head. He was going to wait until they were asleep to get closer, first he had to take care of the dog and then them. Elmar hoped they were naked, people having sex always died in slasher movies. But when he saw them leaving from his hiding place between some bushes, he also saw an opportunity.

\-----

“What are you doing?” Sandor asked when he saw Jon looking for something on his phone.

“Finding the number of the local police in Harrentown, they are closer than us.” Jon was trying to stay calm.

“Don’t.” Sandor voice was bitter.

“What?” Jon asked, not believing Clegane just said that.

“I was there for a case last year. A suspicious drowning; we had the victim registered as disappeared. Their Police Department, if you can call them that, are a bunch of incompetent bastards without the slightest idea of what security means. If the Frey guy is there, he will see those morons coming from a mile away and leave.”

“So?”

“Do you really want this psycho on the loose? His family will help him hide, don’t believe otherwise. Your sister will live in constant fear of waking up with a knife on her throat.”

“Fuck!” Jon shouted. “Then what? Let him attack and hope for the best?”

“Your sister was able to defend herself last time and she is not alone now, she has a better chance than the fucking Harrentown Police Department.”

Jon didn’t answer, he hated to admit it but Clegane was right. He had to trust in Arya’s abilities and hoped it wasn’t too late already.

\-----

Nymeria was exploring when she perceived that disgusting smell again. Only this time it was stronger and closer. Too close to her humans to ignore. She needed to do something about that.

\-----

“Look at that sky! I wish I could paint it just like that.” Arya had Gendry’s arms around her waist with her back resting against his chest. Both were looking the point where the sun met the water of the lake.

“But you can paint it like that, I’ve seen it.”

“I get close, but never like the real thing. You have to…”

The sound of a snarl followed by a cry reached them. Both felt a chill, letting go of each other to turn around.

“What was that? Where’s Nymeria?” Arya reacted at once.

“I don’t know.” Gendry looked around, searching for the wolf.

“Nymeria?” No signs of her, Arya spoke louder. “Nymeria, where are you?” No response. “We have to find her.”

Gendry nodded. “I think the noises came from that direction.” The both of them headed to the trees, calling for the wolf.

\-----

A while after leaving the city, Sandor’s phone rang. He answered, turned the speaker on and left it on the dashboard so Jon could hear as well.

“Dondarrion, talk to me.”

“I spoke with the guard; your guy also took his shoes and wallet. He used the guard’s credit card in one of those stores on the road to buy a bunch of junk food, a cheap pair of trousers and a sweatshirt so forget about the uniform.” Detective Dondarrion talked without much emotion, but he didn’t sound happy.

“Great.” Clegane said, not really surprised.

Detective Dondarrion continued. “Now here’s an interesting thing. On Thursday, a butcher just outside the city reported a robbery on his shop in the early hours of the morning. Window broken, the money was taken, anything out of the ordinary but listen to this, the report says one of the butcher’s knives is missing too.”

“You are trying to tell me…”

“I don’t know, but the timing matches and if your lunatic did this, that means he is already carrying a butcher knife. He used a knife last time, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did” Jon said bitterly, Clegane only glanced at him.

“Mr Snow, hello. I didn’t know you were tagging along,” Detective Dondarrion said, but before Jon could answer the detective asked them to hold for a moment. They heard voices in the background and then Dondarrion’s voice again. “The car was found outside Crownlands Park.”

“That’s two blocks away from where Arya lives now!” Jon exclaimed sounding even more worried.

“That’s not coincidence; he knows were your sister is.” Clegane said to Jon and then to the phone, “Dondarrion…”

“Stolen cars, I’m on it. Call you later.” The line went silent.

“How far?” Sandor’s voice was dry and sounded calmer than expected.

“We are almost there.” Jon spoke with a similar tone.

They looked at each other again and kept going in silence. The sun was already low in the sky.

\-----

Arya and Gendry searched between the trees calling Nymeria’s name until Gendry heard a soft whimper and stopped.

“Nymeria?” The light was already dim but Gendry managed to see something moving, fur. Nymeria was trying to lift her body to be seen. “Arya, over here!”

Arya was at Gendry’s side in a heartbeat. Nymeria was sitting but she had blood under one of her front paws and looked like she was fighting the pain.

“She is injured; we have to take her to the vets.” Gendry was already getting closer.

Arya knelt next to her wolf, trying to calm her down. “Nymeria, let Gendry carry you. It’s OK.” The wolf didn’t fight when Gendry lifted her.

“Do you know if there’s a vet around here?” Gendry asked while they walked back to the cottage as fast as the trees allowed them to.

“Harrentown has a good vet; we took her and Ghost there when they were puppies.”

Good, asking around at this hour would have been a nightmare.” Gendry replied.

\-----

When they reached the car, Gendry left Nymeria over the trunk. “The keys are inside; I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Bring the phones too.” Arya replied and Gendry headed to the door.

The wolf attempted to get up again and Arya stroked her head. “Nymeria, no.”

Arya was trying to calm Nymeria down but the wolf knew the bad man was inside. One of her paws slid across the surface of the trunk and Arya noticed it was lower on the left side. She looked down and saw the tyre, it was flat. Arya touched it, it was not something made by accident on the road, it had a clean cut. She lifted her eyes to the cottage and saw two things at the same time. The front window was broken and behind the white curtain, the shadow of something falling down the stairs.

‘No!’ Arya thought, feeling her heart freeze.

“Nymeria stay there, that’s an order!” Arya commanded before running to the cottage.

Arya opened the door. She was sure the place was dark when they left but now the lights were on, even the one on the kitchen. Arya looked down and saw Gendry’s body at the bottom of the stairs. She gulped and rushed to him.

Gendry had a wound on the side of his abdomen, his grey jumper already stained with blood. But he was breathing and looked like he was trying to regain consciousness. “Gendry,” Arya whispered.

Then the door moved behind her. “Oh, I think boy toy is broken.” Arya recognised the voice right away and felt like her worst nightmare was just beginning.

She stood up and turned around, stepping next to Gendry’s body. “Elmar, please.” Arya tried to talk in a calmed tone but was having a hard time doing it.

Elmar stepped out of his hiding place on the corner next to the door. “You didn’t really think I was going to sit in a white room to eat cookies for the rest of my life and forget about you? Did you?”

Arya started moving backwards to the kitchen, she remembered leaving the knife they used to cut cheese earlier drying on the counter. “Elmar, you don’t have to do this.”

“Oh, but I have to. Only this time there’s no alarms, I can take my time and have some fun.” He was getting closer.

Arya turned around and ran to the kitchen to take the knife but it was not there. Elmar threw his arm around her to grab her arms and drag Arya away from the kitchen.

“No little princess, the only one here with a knife is me.”

Arya watched in terror how Elmar waved a huge knife in front of her face and for a brief second, felt hopeless. But when he licked the skin behind her ear Arya decided she wasn’t going to let Elmar win so easily. Arya had to be strong, for her and for the two injured loved ones behind them.

Elmar started moving to get out of the kitchen, still holding Arya tightly to drag her with him. She kicked, trying to free herself but his arm didn’t move. Elmar turned around the corner to go through the hallway to the smaller bedroom in the back of the cottage. She had stayed there before and knew it had one of those old, strong locks. She would be lost if he got her in there. Arya had to do something and fast.

She saw a chance when they were on the edge of the hallway. Arya pushed the back of her torso against Elmar to impulse her legs and kicked the kitchen wall, throwing them against the bookshelf on the side of the stairs.

The bookshelf staggered violently and made Elmar lose his balance. The both of them fell; Arya’s arms were still under Elmar’s control so her forehead hit the floor, she couldn’t do anything to prevent it.

The knife fell on the floor for a moment but her head was spinning and couldn’t reach it on time, it was in Elmar’s hand again before she could take it. Arya was fighting the dizziness when the weight of his body over her was suddenly lifted.

“Ahhhhgggg!!!” Elmar cried.

“Get away from her, you fucking bastard!” Gendry’s voice was full of rage.

Arya turned her head, trying to focus her eyes. Gendry had an arm around Elmar’s neck and was trying to twist Elmar’s wrist with his other hand to make him drop the knife. But before Gendry could do it, Elmar moved one of his feet to make Gendry stumble.

The both of them fell but Gendry didn’t let go of Elmar so he pushed his elbow in Gendry’s injury, he screamed and that made Arya react. She stood up just as Elmar was turning his body to face Gendry. Elmar was already preparing the knife, still firmly held in his hand, to stab Gendry’s chest.

Arya cleaned a drop of blood from her eyebrow and kicked Elmar’s ribs to distract him. He yelled with anger and stood up fast, almost jumping. Before Gendry could grab him again he pushed Arya against the edge of the already unsteady bookshelf, making it fall and Arya with it.

“Stay there, bitch! You will see him die first!” Elmar shouted turning back to attack Gendry again.

Arya moved fast enough to land most of her body away but her right ankle received the weight of the shelf and the books. She tried to free herself but the bookshelf was heavy and Arya had to twist her body to lift it and take out her foot.

The effort made her waist and back hurt but she finally managed to get her foot free. It burned and was already swelling but Arya didn’t have time to think about that, she had to help Gendry.

Arya looked around from her position on the floor, looking for something to stop Elmar. That’s when she saw it, the knife she was looking for earlier. Elmar didn’t throw it away or hide it; he just put it under the counter. She could see the black handle against the wooden floor. Arya crawled across the kitchen and took it out, it was not even a big knife but she hoped it was enough to hurt Elmar.

She moved out of the kitchen and stood up, leaning on the side of the stairs for balance. Then she straight up charged against Elmar, burying the knife in his back. Elmar screamed again, turning to try and push her again, but this time both Arya and Gendry were ready.

Arya jumped back, falling to the floor again but too far from Elmar and as soon as his arms were free, Gendry grabbed Elmar’s lower legs with the entire straight he still had to make him fall.

Elmar’s body hit the floor with a dry sound, his hand finally dropping the knife out of his reach. Arya saw the opportunity and started crawling to get it, going as far from Elmar as possible to not risk being grabbed.

Elmar took his hand to his back, pulling out Arya’s knife. The wound left a red stain on his sweatshirt but not nearly as big as Gendry’s, certainly not enough to stop him for long. He then started trying to kick, turning on his back to support his body better. Gendry, who was already weak, put all of his weight on Elmar’s legs to prevent him from approaching Arya.

Then the door opened and they heard a growl. Nymeria was limping but reached Elmar faster than he thought possible. He threatened her with the small knife but Nymeria was not having any of that, not after the bad man injured her and hurt her humans. She dodged the knife and her jaw closed around Elmar’s fist, crushing his fingers and making him scream with pain. When Nymeria let go of his hand, blood started dripping down his wrist. The knife fell flat on the floor, Elmar no longer able to hold it.

Arya approached with Elmar’s knife. He looked at her with what can only be described as hate.

“You were supposed to be alone.” Elmar’s voice was only a shadow of what it was a few minutes ago.

“But I’m not!” Arya exclaimed right before stabbing him again, on the heart this time, screaming as she pushed down the knife with all her straight.

Elmar breathed deeply only once more, surprise and fear were the last emotions on his eyes before the life abandoned his body. Arya looked at Elmar, trying to find signals of life, but there were none. His body lied still and his eyes were dark, not a single trace of light on them.

When a small pond of blood started forming underneath him, Arya allowed her hands to let go of the knife and she sat on the floor, shaking. Nymeria also allowed herself to collapse on the floor, tired and in pain but calm because the danger was gone. Gendry managed to turn on his back, breathing heavily and trying to not lose consciousness again.

The sound of a car entering the driveway made the three of them turn their heads to the door. Arya breathed with relief when she saw the two figures stepping inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? What do you think? Writing this one was quite an experience, I hope you liked it.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for reading!


	9. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya faces the aftermath of the incident on the cottage while balancing her emotions and waiting for news about Gendry and Nymeria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last one guys, enjoy!

“Please Jon, take her!” Arya asked while holding Gendry’s face with one hand and Nymeria’s head with the other. She felt her heart torn between the two of them, both injured and in pain.

“I’m not leaving you here, Edd can take her.” Jon argued, but not really convinced of what he was saying.

“Nymeria doesn’t know Edd, she will freak out if he tries to carry her and you already know where the vet is, please.” Arya insisted and Jon knew she was right.

“I can stay with your sister boss, I’ll keep you posted.” Edd nodded to let Jon know he would handle it.

Jon looked from Arya to Edd and back to Arya. He nodded and stood up to go to a very still wolf, looking at everything around her with slightly startled eyes and take her to the vet while Sandor talked frantically on the phone.

\-----

That had been one, two; maybe even three hours ago, Arya wasn’t sure. She remembered the lights of ambulances and police cars, paramedics taking Gendry from her and then being carried away as well. She also remembered Detective Clegane arguing with another cop and someone taking out of a car one of those yellow tapes you always see in crime movies.

Arya supposed she could remember more if she tried harder but that would make her feel like she had a drill inside her head again and decided to stop thinking about it for now and bring her attention back to the present.

She was sitting alone on an examination table feeling exhausted. Arya carefully touched the bandage on her forehead and a sting of pain from the still fresh wound underneath made her twist her mouth. Then she looked down, the cast around her foot going up to her shin made her remember what she was doing there. “Splintered, not broken,” the doctor had said, but she would still need to wear the cast for a while. Arya stared at it for a second. ‘The nurse is bringing me crutches,’ she thought.

Arya took the moment of privacy to examine herself. She was not as dirty as she thought she would be but her top had a few stains of blood and her trousers were ruined, cut to put the cast in place. “Damn, I really liked these trousers,” she whispered and sighed with resignation.

Her knees and hands felt sore because of the crawling and her left arm had five distinctive bruises in the shape of fingers, four on the outer side and one on the inner side. Also, she couldn’t see from her current position but Arya was sure she was going to find bruises on her hips and butt as well, she could feel them already.

Arya sighed again and closed her eyes, gathering more pieces of the last hours. Gendry had been taken to a different area to treat him and she was still waiting for news, same with Nymeria. She was worried and wanted to go ask but couldn’t move at the moment. Arya felt the frustration was about to take over when the door opened.

It was a different nurse with no crutches in sight. She approached Arya to deliver a quick message. “Miss Stark?”

“Yes.” Arya was anxious for some news.

“The gentleman waiting for you outside wanted me to tell you that your dog is fine and already recovering. He said it was important for you to know.” The nurse gave Arya a kind smile.

Arya breathed deeply. “Thank you so much, that’s good news.” The nurse nodded and was about to leave but Arya spoke again. “Do you know something about my boyfriend? His name is Gendry Waters.”

“No Miss Stark, but the doctor will come to you when he is ready.” The nurse nodded again and left, leaving Arya alone once more.

A few minutes later, which Arya felt like an eternity, the first nurse appeared again carrying her crutches. After receiving some instructions and practising for a bit around the room, she was allowed to go to the waiting area where Edd stood up to receive her.

“Thank you for the message about Nymeria,” Arya said while sitting in the chair next to Edd. “Any other news?”

“No, that was all Jon said. He is on his way here now.” Edd sat next to Arya. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better.” Arya tried to answer with humour but was too tired to achieve it. “Anything about Gendry?”

Edd just shook his head. Arya was already anxious but there was nothing else to do but to wait. The both of them sat in silence until Jon arrived.

\-----

“Arya.” The voice of her brother awoke her; she was already falling asleep on the chair under Edd’s jacket.

“Jon!” Arya tried to stand forgetting she had the cast and fell again on the chair, reigniting the sore on her butt. She pressed her lips together to not give more signs of pain.

Jon knelt in front of her and gently touched her face next to the bandage. “How are you?” He asked, obviously waiting for an answer other than ‘fine’.

“Tired, sore, but most of all worried. How is Nymeria?”

“She will be fine, the wound was superficial. The doctor believes the attack was made in a hurry or the intent was not to kill her but hurt her. In any case she was asleep when I left; you will be able to see her tomorrow.”

Arya nodded, she felt a bit better now she had some details about Nymeria. “Thank you.”

Jon gave her a small smile before asking. “And Gendry?”

“Nothing yet. I haven’t even been able to call Davos, our phones were in the cottage and it’s too late to call the shop.”

“I’ll ask Clegane about them. Where did you leave them?”

Arya was in the middle of explaining Jon how to find the phones when a doctor approached them.

“Relatives of Mr Waters?” He asked.

“He has no relatives, I’m his girlfriend.” Arya replied, hoping that was enough.

The doctor considered for a second and decided to continue. “Mr Waters is stable now, but he lost a lot of blood. He also had a dislocated shoulder and a concussion on his head, which could have been much worse. Fortunately, he was responding well and I believe he will recover without problems. However, I would like to keep him under observation for at least a day, just to be sure.”

Arya nodded after the doctor finished. “Can I see him?”

“He is resting right now.”

“Please, just for a minute.” Arya’s voice was emotive enough to convince the doctor.

“Alright, but just a moment.”

The doctor accompanied Arya to Gendry’s bed and told her he would come for her in a couple of minutes. Gendry had a shoulder brace and was connected with a needle to a bag with some kind of fluid, but he looked peaceful on the bed. Arya couldn’t move well with the crutches but managed to take his hand.

Arya didn’t know if the bed behind the curtain at the other side of Gendry’s bed was occupied so she whispered. “I’m so sorry; all of this is my fault.” She breathed deeply to hold back the tears and stood there in silence, holding Gendry’s hand until the doctor came back.

\-----

The doctor assured them Gendry would be awake in the morning and Jon insisted on taking Arya to a hotel so she could rest properly. She tried to argue but Jon was determined. In the end, Arya had to admit that the only thing she would achieve by staying at the hospital would be collapsing and allowed Jon to take her.

They rented rooms in a nearby hotel, Arya made sure hers had two beds in case Nymeria had to spend a night there. Jon wanted Arya to at least eat a sandwich and drink some water and he stayed with her until she did.

“Clegane said he found your phones, he will take them to the hospital, and I’ll buy you some clothes as soon as something opens in the morning so you can change.”

“Good, clean clothes would be nice.” Arya wasn’t actually hungry but finished her sandwich to please Jon.

“Do you need anything else?”

“No, I just want to clean myself and get some rest.”

“OK.” Jon kissed her forehead and stood up. “Call me when you are ready for me to come for you.”

“I will.” Arya smiled at Jon until he closed the door behind him.

Arya took her top off; throwing it away from her as if it had been contaminated by an infectious disease, then proceeded to finish ripping her trousers to be able to take them off as well. She went to the bathroom on her underwear and looked at her own image in the mirror for the first time in what felt like years.

The fluorescent light was not flattering, it made her look pale and emaciated but Arya couldn’t care less at that point. She checked her body for more bruises. Besides the handprint on her arm and the ones she was anticipating on her hip and butt, she had a big one on her leg.

Arya wanted to take a shower but didn’t have enough energy so she just washed her face and hands before going back to the room. She took off her bra and collapsed on the bed wearing only her knickers.

Once she was under the covers, Arya finally allowed herself to break and cry, realising the fear, pain and worry she had been containing. Trying to purge the last few hours from her system and fighting away the question her head kept insisting on asking. ‘What if Gendry leaves me because of this?’ She was still sobbing when she fell asleep.

\-----

Arya woke up feeling confused; it took her a moment to remember where she was and why. She sat on the bed and closed her eyes for at least a minute, gathering the will to stand up and start the day. Her body ached and her head was beating. She could feel the puffiness on her eyes, making them heavier.

The thought of seeing Gendry and Nymeria finally did the trick. She was still tired but she had to take shower, she needed to feel clean.

Showering was not an easy task. The nurse had explained to Arya how to do it at the hospital but listening to it and actually doing it were two very different things. However, she was decided to achieve it.

Half an hour later, Arya had managed to wash herself and go back to the room wearing the hotel’s bathrobe and a towel on her head. After drying her hair as well as she could with the not absorbent at all towel, she proceeded to call Jon.

Her brother appeared with a bag containing a pair of ugly brown shorts and a grey jumper, which she put on in the bathroom. They felt big on her but at least she wouldn’t have any problem putting her leg on and out of the shorts. That alone was an advantage.

“Sorry about the size, there were not many options.” Jon apologised while Arya was putting on her sock and shoe.

“Don’t worry, this will do.”

“Just a heads up, Sansa called last night. She was freaking out and about to get in her car to come. I had to calm her down and convince her there was nothing she could do here apart from sitting and waiting.” Jon looked at Arya’s back, waiting for her reaction.

Arya turned her head. “What? How did she find out?”

I called Daenerys to tell her what happened and I asked her to tell Sansa.”

Arya groaned. “Why?”

“It would have been a lot worse if we tried to hide it from her, Sansa would have been pissed.”

Arya didn’t like it, but it was true. “Yeah, makes sense.”

“Anyway, Sansa said she would call again tonight. It’s your turn to speak with her.”

Arya twisted her mouth but agreed with her head.

\-----

After breakfast and a well-deserved large cup of coffee, Edd dropped Arya and Jon at the hospital and headed back to the city to make sure everything kept spinning at Jon’s business.

Detective Clegane was already waiting for them, he informed Arya that Mr Waters was well and had already made the call he needed to make. He also requested to speak with Arya before she went to see her boyfriend. She wanted to go see Gendry immediately but knew she had to tell Detective Clegane the whole story while it was still fresh on her mind.

Arya narrated everything she remember, starting with the alarm incident the night of the opening, going all the way to the point where they were found on the floor of the cottage. She also answered all the questions Detective Clegane made until he seemed satisfied.

“Alright, that’s all. You will probably have to go to the station to sign something official, same as your boyfriend, but we are done for now.”

“Detective Clegane, am I going to be in trouble?” Arya felt nervous about that point.

The Detective shook his head. “I don’t think so. It was clearly self-defence and Elmar left a trail of evidence not even the Frey family will be able to erase. You’ll be fine; I’ll take care of it.”

With that the Detective left, delivering her and Gendry’s phones and surprisingly enough, their personal travelling bags, and Arya was finally free to go see Gendry.

\-----

Arya entered the room as Gendry’s doctor was finishing examining his eyes. The doctor seemed satisfied and signalled Arya to approach.

“Looks like things are going well with Mr Waters. I will send him one more meal and if he doesn’t throw it up during the following couple of hours, he will be free to leave.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Gendry and Arya said at the same time. The doctor nodded and left.

Gendry smiled at her and Arya got closer. This time there was a chair next to the bed so she was able to sit.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Arya asked.

“Pretty well actually, considering.” Gendry looked down for a second and smirked. “And you?”

“Same, I guess.” Arya smiled a little. “Did you call Davos?”

“Yeah, Detective Clegane came to talk with me and let me call.” Gendry sighed. “Davos is on his way. I told him it wasn’t necessary, I wasn’t even going to be here for too long, but he insisted.”

“Of course he did, he cares about you.” Gendry still looked a bit pale, but Arya was relieved to see him awake and talking. She decided to say what was in her mind. “I’m so sorry about all of this; you wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been with me.”

“Don’t blame yourself; you are not responsible for Elmar or any of this.”

Her heart told her she didn’t have to worry but Arya had to know for sure, she had to hear it. She hesitated for a moment and then asked. “Are you going to leave now?”

“Leave where?” Gendry looked around, not understanding Arya’s question.

“Me, your life was more peaceful before you met me.”

Then Gendry realised what Arya was saying. “What? No!” He reached for her hand. “I will tell you what my life was before you. It was insipid, that’s what it was. I have a work I love, of course, but I went back home to a TV. I was lucky if Hot Pie or Lommy wanted to go out for a couple of beers once in a while. Sometimes I stayed late at the shop out of boredom. Now I look forward to go back to you after work, or at least hearing your voice the nights I’m not there. I’m not going anywhere. Do you hear me? Anywhere.” Gendry emphasised the last sentence by gently squeezing Arya’s hand.

Arya felt a weight lifting from her heart and bit her lip, managing not to cry. She only nodded and squeezed back Gendry’s hand.

Gendry spoke again to break the silence. “Now come closer and let me see that foot.”

\-----

Davos arrived not long after that, same as Gendry’s meal.

“I can’t believe you closed the shop to come here, you shouldn’t have.” Gendry knew Davos didn’t like to close it without a good reason.

“Well, I was going to but I didn’t have to.” Davos stopped for a moment for emphasis. “I left Edric in charge.”

“What?!” Both Arya and Gendry exclaimed, again at the same time.

“It is about time he starts and he was the one who offered anyway. Edric said he wanted to support his friend.”

Gendry looked down and smiled. He didn’t say it but he felt moved by that.

\-----

By the time Gendry was discharged, Arya was eager to go to the vet. She hadn’t seen Nymeria in way too many hours for her personal taste and wanted to hug her already.

Nymeria was inside their biggest enclosure, which made it look so minuscule it was almost ridiculously funny. The wolf wagged her tail when she saw her humans, which made it look like a cheerleading pom pom.

“We are so sorry she doesn’t have more space, we don’t have anything bigger than that.” The doctor looked a bit embarrassed.

“It’s fine. How is she?” Arya was used to Nymeria being too big for a lot of things.

“She is doing great. As long as she behaves while she is healing, she will recover just fine.”

“Good.” That was Arya’s last immediate worry and she was happy Nymeria was going to be OK.

\-----

Since Jon’s car wasn’t going to be realised until the next morning, Davos was kind enough to transport Nymeria to the hotel. He offered to take them all back to the city but Jon declined, followed by Arya, who wanted Nymeria to rest comfortably for a few hours before the trip back home. Gendry also decided to stay; he didn’t want to leave Arya’s side. Davos was not surprised at all.

Sansa called again that night and Arya had to patiently explain a brief version of what happened, assure her sister the three of them were fine, she didn’t have to worry at all and that they would be back tomorrow.

\-----

After Davos left and Jon went back to his room, Arya and Gendry sat on the bed for a while, just leaning on the headboard and enjoying the peaceful environment after so many doctors and nurses rushing around them. Nymeria was sleeping in the other bed, looking comfortable under a blanket, except for a rebellious paw she always kept out whenever Arya covered her.

Arya moved her head to look at Gendry. “Thank you for staying with me.”

“Of course, I’m not leaving without my girl.” Gendry turned his head as well. “Besides, what am I supposed to do alone in my flat other than missing you like crazy?”

“About that, I have something for you.”

“What?”

Arya went to take something from her bag and came back to the bed with her keychain. She took two new looking keys out of the ring and put them between them. “These are for you.”

Gendry took the keys and looked at them, not believing what he was seeing. “Are these… of your house?”

“Yeah, you are there most of the time anyway and I miss you too much when you go back to your flat.”

Gendry left the keys on the bed again and took her face with his hand. “Arya, are you sure?” Gendry asked. He didn’t want something as important as this to be done by impulse after what just happened.

“I am. I was going to give them to you this weekend anyway, but I was planning something more romantic than an ugly hotel room in the middle of Harrentown.” Arya took a deep breath and finished. “Only if you want, of course.”

Gendry got closer to touch her forehead with his. “Of course I want to, nothing would make me happier.”

After kissing, Arya saw the same shine in Gendry’s eyes than the night of his nameday, when they said ‘I love you’ for the first time. He was happy.

They fell asleep soon after that. Both were exhausted and this time, the two of them were able to for real have some rest.

\-----

The next day everything went as planned. They had a late breakfast while waiting for a crane to bring Jon’s car. He replaced the tyre the police had taken as evidence and by one; they were on their way back to the city. Jon and Gendry on the front, Arya and Nymeria in the back sit. The wolf’s body occupying most of the space with her head on Arya’s lap.

\-----

When they arrived to Arya’s house, Sansa’s car was waiting for them. She got out as soon as Jon parked, carrying a couple of big bowls full of homemade food. “You are in no condition to cook right now,” she said and after a round of hugs they all went inside.

Jon carried Nymeria to her bed where she curled at once. Her humans were well and she was finally home. The wolf looked at the humans talking for a few minutes until she fell asleep again, feeling at peace.

After around 15 minutes, both Sansa and Jon said their goodbyes. While Sansa was telling Arya to call if they needed anything and promised to call the following day anyway, Jon took a moment to tell Gendry something in private.

“Now I know my sister is safe with you. Take care of her.” Then he shook Gendry’s hand. This time the same way he did with Theon, like family.

“She is and I will.” Gendry answered proudly.

Arya closed the door behind her siblings and by instinct turned to the alarm. But instead of activating it, she only traced the edges with one of her fingers and started walking towards Gendry.

“No alarm?” Gendry asked.

“No, I’ll wait until we go to bed.” Arya reached her boyfriend and hugged him, careful not to touch his wound. Once her head was resting in Gendry’s shoulder and had his arm around her waist, she finished. “I feel safe now.”

****

**19 MONTHS LATER**

“A horse!” Theon exclaimed with determination.

“It’s not, horses don’t move like that!” Replied Gendry, frowning.

“Neither do humans.” Theon answered impatient.

“Focus Theon, focus.” Gendry was trying hard to guess what Daenerys was supposed to be imitating.

“What are those? Horns?” Theon asked squinting.

“I don’t know.”

Daenerys stood up and ran to the sofa to get the jumper she was wearing when they arrived and rolled it up very carefully so Gendry and Theon could see what she was doing. Then assumed a crawling position again, put the rolled jumper on her back and her index fingers on each side of her head while moving slowly from side to side.

“One of those prehistoric creatures that had rolls on their backs!” Theon was more lost with every guess.

“A roll, that’s it! It’s a snail, it’s a snail!” Gendry exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Daenerys touched her nose with one hand and pointed to Gendry with the other, two seconds later the chronometer rang.

“Yeah!” Daenerys clapped and raised a fist on the air.

“Whoa!” Theon jumped off the sofa.

“Yes!” Gendry raised his arms with triumph.

“Awwwww!” The three Starks exclaimed disappointed.

Both Ghost and Nymeria raised their heads at the screaming but lowered them again after realising the humans were just playing.

“And that’s 5 out of 6 vs. 4 out of 6! The Partners Team beats the Siblings Team!” Theon danced celebrating the victory.

“I thought we were going to get them with that last one.” Jon said shaking his head.

Arya moved to allow Gendry to sit next to her again. “Well, that means my fiancée is very smart.” And she kissed Gendry’s cheek.

“We are getting them next time.” Sansa said with confidence.

“And we’ll be prepared.” Daenerys finished her glass of soda, still breathing fast.

“Let me refill it for you,” Arya offered starting to stand up.

“It’s fine, I’ll do it myself. I need to stretch my legs after that snail.”

“I’ll go for more as well.” Sansa stood up and walked with Daenerys to the kitchen.

Theon was still shaking his head in a celebratory way. “Gendry, my friend, that one was close!”

“But we got it!” Gendry celebrated as well, smiling from ear to ear.

Arya looked at Gendry, delighted to see him fully integrated with her family, which was soon to be his as well.

After all that had happened, things had evolved in the best of ways. Arya was wearing a bright yellow dress and black boots. Her hair was still brown, but it had a bunch of pink locks shining here and there. Arya was also sporting now a costume made engagement ring with an infinity symbol engraved on the inside that Gendry had given her a few months before and they were already planning the day.

The house also looked different. The painting Arya gave Gendry on his first nameday with her was decorating the walls along with two more of her paintings, all properly framed by Gendry’s work. There were also a couple of colourful blown glass pieces displayed on the living room. A bowl with crystal beads and a vase that Arya always kept full of fresh flowers.

Another change was the little table by the window. The frame with Arya’s parents was still there, but the other pictures showed newer images. A big one of all of them, including Robb, Bran, Rickon and Nymeria with Ghost sitting on the front at Sansa and Theon’s wedding. One of Arya and Gendry posing together while celebrating their anniversary and one of Davos with Gendry taken by Arya during Davos’ last nameday.

Gendry was basically in charge of the shop now, working hard along with Edric and already thinking about hiring someone else. Davos visited often and was always available if they needed help, but otherwise he was enjoying his retirement and was making big plans to travel with his wife. He wanted to bring back new designs and products from Essos and both Gendry and Edric loved the idea.

Hot Pie’s café/bakery was thriving as well; he was famous for having the best cupcakes of the city and was proud of the title.

Arya’s career was better than ever and she was always happy to interact with her fans during events.

** _They only use the alarm at night and when they leave the house alone._ **

****

**FIN**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did I manage to write 30k words is still a mystery to me but it's been a liberating experience and a placer to interact with the fandom in such a different way.
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading, for all the kudos and all the comments, I love you!
> 
> Please let me know what you think about this first work!


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